Town Health Officials Working to Combat Mosquito-Borne Illness

Brookline health officials are testing mosquitoes and treating potential breeding grounds in preparation for the season of high-risk for mosquito-borne illness.

Officials say the period from late July through the fall is when people are most likely to contract the two insect-borne diseases that cause swelling of the brain: West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Both diseases are transmitted from infected birds to humans through mosquitoes and cause severe symptoms.

During the high-risk period, heath officials are urging residents to take steps to avoid getting bitten, including avoiding the outdoors around dawn and dusk, wearing long-sleeve shirts and using a DEET insect repellent. Homeowners are also advised to drain standing or stagnant water where mosquitoes might breed.

Town employees will also apply larvicide to catch basins and some conservation land to prevent new mosquitoes from hatching, and traps will be set up so the insects can be captured and tested. Information on mosquito testing results will be posted on the town's website.

So far this year, mosquitoes have tested positive for Eastern Equine in the towns of Lakeville and Halifax, and a horse in Middleborough was euthanized after contracting the disease. Three mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile in Brookline in September 2009.

Most people who contract West Nile experience no symptoms and recover on their own, though people over the age of 50 are more likely to experience severe symptoms.  Those infected with Eastern Equine are also more likely to experience severe symptoms, which can include high fever, muscle weakness, headache, disorientation, neck stiffness, paralysis, coma, tremors, convulsions and sometimes death.

For further information, call the Massachusetts Department of Public Health information hotline at 1-866-627-7968 or contact the Brookline Health Department.