Several hundred US kids are being treated for Enterovirus 68 – a respiratory illness that can cause children to become paralyzed. Outbreaks of the virus have been detected in most of the fifty states.
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So far, the virus has infected 443 children in 40 states, and the
District of Columbia, according to the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
Abbreviated as EV-D68, the virus was first identified 50 years
ago. However, it has rarely been tested for until cases started
appearing in the US Midwest and Southwest this year.
EV-D68 causes symptoms similar to the common cold but progresses
into wheezing, breathing problems and paralysis.
There is no drug yet for the current strain of the virus, so
treatment is focused on helping patients to breathe.
CDC, state health officials and doctors announced last week they
were investigating nine cases of children with muscles weakness
or paralysis linked to the virus at the Children’s Hospital
Colorado. Most had the respiratory illness but then came down
with an unspecified “acute neurological illness.” Four
of the eight tested positive for the enterovirus, while eight of
the nine had up-to-date polio vaccinations.
“The severity is what triggered our concern,” said Mark
Pallansch, director of the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases.
The number of ill children might increase once the backlog of
specimens has been tested, CDC said.
EV-D68 is one of some 100 different non-polio enteroviruses
attacking about 10-15 million infants and children a year. Young
people are most at risk of getting sick as their immune systems
have not fully developed. Especially vulnerable are the children
suffering from asthma.
The polio-like paralysis cases are not as frequent, but a
California research team reported limb paralysis cases in five
children as early as February. They did not regain the use of
their limbs. Two of them were confirmed with EV-68 and
respiratory illness before the symptoms began, and all of the
children had been previously vaccinated against poliovirus.
Newly identified strains of the enterovirus have also been reported among children in Asia and Australia, causing polio-like symptoms.
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