By News Staff
news@abc6.com
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BOSTON (AP) - State health officials are reporting the first death from Eastern equine encephalitis in Massachusetts this year.
The victim was a man in his 70s who lived in the Metrowest area of Worcester County. He was admitted to a hospital early last month and died several days later. An autopsy confirmed that the man died of EEE and officials believe he was exposed to the mosquito-borne virus during the first week of August.
There has been one other confirmed human case of EEE in Massachusetts this year, in a Metrowest-area resident believed to have contracted the virus outside of the state.
The state Department of Public Health also said Thursday that EEE has been found in a horse stabled in Belchertown, prompting officials to raise the EEE threat level to "critical'' in that community.
