Massachusets third human case of eastern equine encephalitis this year has been confirmed in a nine-year-old Middleborough boy.
According to state health officials the boy is seriously ill and has been hospitalized. His parents identified him as John Fontaine.Middleborough was included in the Massachusets’ first aerial spraying on August eighth to kill the virus carrying mosquitoes.
The boy was probably exposed to the virus after the spraying.
The first two people to contract the virus this year in Massachusetts was a 52-year-old Lakeville woman and a 23-year-old man from Acushnet.
Mosquitoes are carriers of the Triple-E virus transmitting it to humans through mosquito bites.
Symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to encephalitis, coma and death.
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