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By Katie Lannan
BOSTON – The prevalence of equine encephalitis in eastern Massachusetts this year has prompted Governor Charlie Baker to launch the idea of broader prevention efforts next year. and two members of Congress to ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for information on funding and other forms of assistance.
The state's Department of Public Health on Friday announced an eighth confirmed case of EEE, in a man in his fifties, in northeastern Bristol County.
A human case of another disease transmitted by a mosquito, West Nile virus, was recorded earlier this week.
Aerial spraying of pesticides will begin Monday, weather permitting, in parts of Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties. Specifically, spraying will be conducted at Brimfield, Brookfield, Charlton, Brookfield East, New Braintree, Brookfield North, Palmer, Southbridge, Sturbridge, Ware, Warren and West Brookfield.
Spraying already underway in other parts of the state will continue over the weekend, said DPH.
Ministry of Health Reports First Case of West Nile Virus
Seven people were diagnosed with more severe equine encephalitis.
Public health officials have advised residents to continue taking precautions to avoid mosquito bites – wear insect repellents, long sleeves and pants, and stay indoors between dusk and dusk. dawn – even as the weather cooled in September.
On Thursday, US officials Joseph Kennedy III and Katherine Clark wrote to CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield, noting that hundreds of mosquitoes in Massachusetts had been tested positive in the EEA and that the number of confirmed human cases in the State had already exceeded the national average. cases reported to the CDC each year. "
"With the spread of EEE and the growing number of diagnosed cases, families are keeping children inside, older people are at increased risk and our state and local governments are expanding their funds. emergency, "Kennedy said in a statement posted to News Service. "As leaders across the state continue to do extraordinary work to combat this epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control must be ready to help raise awareness and any financial assistance that the federal government can offer."
The letter from Clark and Kennedy asks if "a threat to public health such as the EEA could be taken into account" for public health subsidies and other potential funding. They demand that the centers "pay immediate attention to the terrible EEE epidemic".
7 cases of disease transmitted by EEE mosquitoes now confirmed in Massachusetts, including a 5-year-old girl; level of risk in several communities high to critical
Health authorities have raised the risk level of Eastern equine encephalitis to a critical level for several cities in eastern Massachusetts following the confirmation of two new EEA cases on Friday. Laboratory tests confirmed an elderly woman from Worcester County and a teenage woman.
The Clark District includes Sudbury, where a five-year-old girl was diagnosed with the rare but potentially serious virus transmitted by mosquitoes. "It's a terrifying disease and we must do everything in our power to prevent it," Clark said.
Thirty-five Massachusetts communities are now at a critical risk of EEE, said Friday the DPH, 38 others at high risk of contracting the virus and 120 at moderate risk.
After discussing IAS prevention efforts with public health officials in Lakeville on Thursday, Baker said health and environment officials "worked tirelessly" to combat IAS, including by trapping and testing hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes.
He indicated that he would work with legislators to ensure that the state had the resources to fund additional spraying and monitoring activities. An expense bill filed by Baker last week provided $ 3.5 million for cleanup.
Baker, who worked at the executive office of health and social services in the 1990s, said "as far as I can remember," the Massachusetts EEE was primarily concentrated in the southeastern part of the state. , in the counties of Bristol and Plymouth.
"It's really where most of the effort and the work has been done," he told the press conference. "And during this season, he was transferred to Cape Town, Norfolk County, Worcester County, where it was in places where we had not seen him before."
Baker said that he supposed that this expansion was partly related to the flight habits of birds, but that other factors could be involved.
"I think this means that next year, as we start planning this activity in the spring, we will have to start planning on a much wider geographic radius than the one we had planned on in the past."
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