BOSTON (WHDH) - The Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed that a third person has died from Eastern Equine Encephalitis, leaving residents concerned throughout the Bay State.
Officials announced the third fatality on Monday night, identifying them only as a resident of Hampden County.
This marked the second EEE death within the past week. Jim Longworth, 78, of Freetown, passed away on Friday after contracting the virus.
“Within less than 24 hours, he went into a coma,” a family member told 7NEWS. “He took all the precautions and it happened to him.”
Earlier this summer, 59-year-old Laurie Sylvia, of Fairhaven, also died due to the virus.
State officials say more than 200 communities are at risk for EEE, including 40 that are at high risk and 35 that are at critical risk.
There have also been more than 400 EEE-positive mosquito samples in the state, along with 10 humans and 8 animals that have contracted the virus, according to the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services.
These are the first human cases of EEE reported in the Bay State since 2013.
“We know that this virus changes slightly every once in a while down in Florida, not in Massachusetts and that when one of those new variants is introduced into the state that tends to trigger one of our outbreak cycles,” explained Dr. Catherine Brown, state epidemiologist of the Department of Public Health.
State officials continue to remind residents throughout the Commonwealth to take personal precautions to prevent mosquito bites.
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