(Daily Mail) – A Massachusetts woman has died from the rare eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus, making her one of four in the state to have contracted the deadly mosquito-borne virus. Laurie Sylvia, 59, began feeling sick last Monday and by Saturday the realtor and grandmother from Bristol County had passed away, her husband of 40 years, Robert Sylvia Jr, confirmed. Earlier this month, a Massachusetts man over 60 years old fell into a coma after contracting the disease that either comes on like a sudden, intense cold, then disappears altogether, or comes on more slowly, but severely, causing diarrhea, vomiting, headache and loss of appetite.

Between 30 and 50 percent of people that contract the rare bug-borne disease don’t survive it, putting Massachusetts on high alert as Sylvia is the first death reported in the state this year.Sylvia’s daughter, Jen Sylvia, took to Facebook to mourn her ‘best friend’. ‘She brought light and joy to everyone she came across,’ Jen wrote Sunday. ‘She was such a beautiful soul. I don’t know where to go from here. I just don’t understand how such a beautiful person could be taken from me so soon.’ Over the course of the last decade, there have been more cases of EEE in Florida than any other state. READ MORE