EEE Confirmed In Sudbury Mosquitoes: State

SUDBURY, MA — State health officials have found Eastern equine encephalitis in mosquitoes collected in Sudbury, according to the town.

Sudbury is the first community in Middlesex County in 2024 to have EEE-positive mosquitoes. The first samples were confirmed in Plymouth County earlier this summer.

No human cases of EEE have been detected in Massachusetts this summer. Sudbury had one of the 12 human cases during the last serious outbreak of the disease in 2019. Sophia Garabedian, who was 5 in 2019, survived the disease, which killed six people in 2019.

“EEE is a rare but serious illness spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. While EEE can infect people of all ages, people under 15 years of age or over 50 years of age are at greatest risk for serious illness,” the select board said in a bulletin Thursday.

So far in 2024, the state has collected 46 mosquitoes positive for EEE. There has been a single animal case confirmed in Plymouth. Almost all the EEE samples have been collected in the Plymouth area, although samples have also been found in Dedham and near Newburyport.

Before the season ramped up this summer, health officials in Sudbury predicted a potentially bad year for mosquitoes, in part due to high amounts of rain over the spring months.

According to the town, the East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project will conduct mosquito spraying on Monday in response to the EEE confirmation.