UPDATE (6:03 p.m.): The Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed to WBSM News that a woman over the age of 50 in southern Bristol County has become the state's fourth human case of EEE this year.

The Fairhaven woman who reportedly contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis has passed away, her daughter posted on social media today.

Jen Sylvia posted on Facebook that her mother, Laurie Sylvia, had passed away today.

“Today I had to say goodbye to my best friend. My mum was my favorite person in the world. She brought light and joy to everyone she came across,” Sylvia wrote. “I just don’t understand how such a beautiful person could be taken from me so soon. I wasn’t done.”

Late Saturday night, Teamsters Local 59 had posted on its Facebook page that Sylvia had been stricken with EEE and that her family was “preparing for the worst.” Sylvia was the wife of Teamsters Local 59 President Robert Sylvia, Jr. and would mark the fourth person confirmed to be infected with the EEE virus in Massachusetts this year.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has not yet confirmed that there has been a fourth case. Previously, the state had not seen a human infected with EEE since 2013.

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