MA Man Contracts EEE As Deadly Disease Reemerges

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester County has become the epicenter of the 2024 Eastern equine encephalitis threat after state health officials Friday confirmed that a local man is the first human to contract the disease this year.

The man in his 80s is the first human case of EEE since the last outbreak waned over the summer of 2020. The first mosquito EEE sample was collected in early July, and an animal case was found earlier this month in Plymouth.

Following the detection of the human case, health officials raised the EEE threat level to "critical" in Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster, and "high" in Dudley, Northbridge and Uxbridge.

"EEE is a rare but serious disease and a public health concern. We want to remind residents of the need to protect themselves from mosquito bites, especially in areas of the state where we are seeing EEE activity," Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein said in a news release.

Plymouth and Bristol counties were the first places in Massachusetts where EEE was found this summer. Communities around Plymouth are still at an elevated risk of the disease, as well as far northern Essex County. Mosquitoes in Dedham and Sudbury have also tested positive.

The peak of the state's most recent EEE outbreak came in 2019, when 12 state residents contracted the disease, and six died. There were five EEE cases in 2020 and one death.

West Nile virus is also active this summer, with dozens of communities from the Berkshires to Cape Cod at "moderate" risk of the disease, including Worcester, Grafton and Shrewsbury in Worcester County.