Spraying aims to keep EEE out of Eastie
Workers will be spraying today to protect East Boston residents from mosquito-borne disease transmission four days after the state Department of Public Health announced that laboratory testing had confirmed the second case in the state of Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus infection.
Spraying will be done between dusk and 11:30 tonight in neighborhoods located near Orient Heights, including streets in the vicinity of Orient Avenue, Boardman Street, Andrew Road and Horace Street. Sprayings also took place Monday in Hyde Park and West Roxbury.
“We haven’t had cases of EEE in Boston in humans or mosquitoes,” said Brian Farless, superintendent of the East Middlesex and Suffolk County Mosquito Control Projects. “We’re just spraying to knock down the high populations of mosquitoes we find in traps we have throughout the city.”
The projects use a truckmounted aerosol sprayer to apply a formula that contains the pesticide sumithrin. Residents don’t need to take any special precautions, Farless said, but as with any pesticide, people should minimize exposure. If residents see a spray truck approaching, they should go indoors for a couple of minutes while the spray dissipates. People also should close windows during and immediately after spraying.
Although the sprayings are purely preventative, Farless said, they’re a good opportunity to remind people to wear an Environmental Protection Agency-registered mosquito repellent and to empty any outdoor containers of water.
“All it takes is a bottle cap of rain to attract mosquitoes,” he said.
Last week, the state Department of Public Health announced that laboratory testing had confirmed the second case of EEE virus infection in a man between the ages of 19 and 30 from eastern Worcester County. It was the second human case of EEE in Massachusetts this year. The first was a Southern Plymouth County man over the age of 60. A young goat in Bristol County has also tested positive for EEE, a rare but potentially fatal disease.
Ten communities now at critical risk include Hopkinton in Middlesex County; Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Upton and Westboro in Worcester County; and Easton, Norton and Raynham in Bristol County, according to DPH; Framingham and Marlboro in Middlesex County.
Millbury, Northboro, and Sutton in Worcester County are considered at high risk.
EEE most often occurs in places where there are red maple and white cedar swamps, said Omar Cabrera, a DPH spokesman. In Massachusetts, the largest concentration of that habitat type is found in Bristol and Plymouth counties.