Board of Health declines Reverse 911 as Sudbury EEE risk rises to moderate

SUDBURY -- August 23, 2024, Sudbury Board of Health holds off on Reverse 911 as EEE risk rises to moderate. Four of five mosquito pools submitted last week tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis, including one in the main bridge-vector species, prompting the state to raise the town's risk level, an East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project representative told Chair Carol Bradford and member Susan Sama at the August 23 meeting; member Linda Huet-Clayton was absent. Crews sprayed Tuesday and Wednesday and planned to return Monday and Tuesday, with backpack perimeter treatments completed at Haskell Field and scheduled at the Fairbank Community Complex. The town has distributed emergency-waiver packets to both school districts and a prevention memo to coaches, Sudbury Extended Day and Parks and Recreation. "I don't want to use Reverse 911 so frequently that people become just numb to it," the health director said. With no human or animal cases in Sudbury and only one human case statewide, in Oxford, the board agreed to escalate communications only if risk rises further.