9-Year-Old Boy Dies of Eastern Equine Encephalitis

A Middleboro boy has died from the mosquito borne eastern equine encephalitis virus. 9 year old John Fontaine had been hospitalized at Boston's Children's Hospital since August 20th, two days after he developed a fever and other symptoms of the virus.

He was the third person to contract the virus in Massachusetts this year and he is the first fatal case of it.

Middleboro was among the Southeasetern Massachusetts communities where there have been two rounds of aerial pesticide spraying because of the threat of mosquito borne viruses. Fontaine is believed to have contracted triple E shortly after the first round of spraying.