Facing an insidious foe

MIDDLEBOROUGH -- In this wet, low-lying town, the football team ends practice before 6 p.m. In Holbrook, the high school's playing fields are protected by bug-zapping Mosquito Magnets. And in Brockton, landscapers are being urged to slather themselves with insect spray at least twice a day.

With three cases of Eastern equine encephalitis now confirmed in the state, including a 9-year-old Middleborough boy in critical condition, jittery residents across Southeastern Massachusetts are struggling to defend themselves against a ubiquitous foe that they can see, hear, and feel, but not completely avoid.

``I think we're all concerned. It's a different world," said Allison J. Ferreira, the assistant to the Middleborough town manager.

Apprehension in the community, which calls itself the ``cranberry capital of the world," escalated after John Fontaine, 9, collapsed at football practice Aug. 19. A meeting for the parents of 300 children enrolled in the youth football league was scheduled for last evening, after health officials yesterday confirmed his illness as the latest case of the disease.

Town Manager John F. Healey said concern about the mosquito-borne virus is the most intense he's seen in 21 years on the job. ``People are being much more cautious," Healey said. ``They're curtailing activities in the dusk period, and pretty much everything's been shut down."

With the height of mosquito season in the last two weeks in August, precautions were being taken in communities throughout the area. In Pembroke, officials were scheduled to meet last night to decide whether to curtail nighttime activities involving children. Parents of school athletes in several towns are being asked to give permission for their children to use DEET during outdoor practices. The Boy Scouts posted a note on their website seeking to reassure parents in the area that Camp Norse in Kingston had been sprayed.

The Plymouth County Mosquito Control Project, which responds to individual requests to spray homes, has received a record number of complaints this year, officials said. Since May, the office has received 12,200 requests for spraying, an increase of 3,500 through the same time in 2005, said project superintendent Ray Zucker.

He said he thinks public awareness is on the rise.

``Last year with EEE activity, we had two deaths and we didn't have the number of spray requests that we had this year," said Zucker, whose agency collects mosquitoes killed by aerial spraying and sends them to the state Department of Public Health for screening.

In addition to Fontaine, who was being treated at Children's Hospital in Boston, a 52-year-old woman from Lakeville and a 23-year-old man from Acushnet have contracted the virus this year. In the last four years, four people in the state have been killed by the virus, which can cause inflammation of the brain and lead to a coma and death.

The virus kills about one-third of its victims; half who survive suffer permanent neurological damage. No cure exists, and survivors often require lengthy hospitalization.

Behind Middleborough High School yesterday afternoon, the football team and the girls' soccer squad practiced on wet fields in a barely perceptible drizzle. If they had concerns about the ``triple E" virus, as local residents describe the threat, those worries weren't evident.

``There's no change. You just spray yourself really good," said Mark Amaral, 17, a senior cornerback for the football team.

But for the soccer moms and dads standing nearby, who watched their daughters run laps after four hours of practice, ``triple E" registered higher on the danger scale. ``In the daytime, I'm not concerned. But when dark rolls around, absolutely," said Don Feman, 47. ``It does make me a little nervous."

Feman makes sure he shuts the door to the house now, and is more careful when he lets the dogs in and out. But, the contractor said, ``we have mosquitoes in the house still. Where the hell do they come from?"

Since an aerial spraying by the state on Aug. 9, the first in 16 years, no new cases of the virus have been detected in mosquitoes caught in traps in the town, Healey said.

``It's an indicator that what was here is no longer here," the town manager said.

Additional aerial spraying over Southeastern Massachusetts was begun Aug. 22. Together, the two rounds of spraying appear to have largely eliminated the area's mosquito population, with some officials estimating that more than 80 percent of mosquitoes were eradicated.

The state Department of Public Health is expected to know the results of last week's spraying within a few days. The agency will then decide if another round of spraying is needed, said Ed Kiely, chief of staff for the department.

Kiely urged residents to remain vigilant and use repellent. ``There's no way to kill 100 percent of the mosquitoes, and aerial spraying is not a silver bullet," he said. ``It reduces risk; it doesn't eliminate it."

Fran Cass, a maintenance worker for Middleborough, said he believes townspeople recognize the mosquito problem as a potentially long-term threat.

``Everybody knows there's a reasonable risk," he said .

Cass said he wears long pants and long-sleeve shirts whenever possible. Cass also endorses another idea that he believes could help reduce mosquitoes. ``Bat houses," he said. ``They're a natural predator. Bats are the way to go."