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NBC
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What Is the
Midwest Enterovirus? 6 Things to Know
By Maggie Fox
A rare and usually mild virus is sending kids in several Midwest cities
to the hospital, worrying parents and doctors alike. No child has died
and they’re all likely to get better, but state and federal health
officials are taking the reports seriously. Here’s what you need to
know about enterovirus D68:
How
dangerous is this virus?
It’s serious enough to worry the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and has definitely put a few children into the hospital.
How many exactly, CDC doesn’t know yet — while there are clusters of
serious respiratory disease caused by EV-D68 in the Midwest — 19 in
Kansas City and 11 in Chicago, for example — not all the sick children
have had tests out find out what they have. And some of the sick kids
have something else. No child has been reported to have died from
EV-D68, however. It also does not seem to be causing an epidemic, or at
least not yet. CDC monitoring systems have not picked up any national
increase in respiratory disease. Most kids infected with EV-D68 will
likely have mild cold-like symptoms and will get better on their own.
Children with asthma are most at risk, just as they are from any
respiratory virus.
Where
did it come from?
It’s not a new virus. EV-D68 was first identified back in 1962, in a
child with pneumonia, and while it seems to be fairly unusual, it does
circulate and make kids sick. Adults are usually immune. Viruses change
a little all the time and cause outbreaks of infection, but CDC says
nothing yet explains why EV-D68 is worse this summer. “Our laboratory
staff here at CDC have had a chance to sequence some of the recent
specimens, and I can tell that you it's not a new strain,” CDC’s Dr.
Anne Schuchat says.
How
can I prevent it?
As with any infectious disease, your best defense is to wash your
hands. Sneezing and coughing both spread germs, but you’re not catching
them from breathing the air, usually. Colds, flu and viruses like
EV-D68 are spread when people touch a surface the virus had landed on,
like a desk, and then touch their mouths, noses or eyes. Kids touch
their own faces on the order of once a minute, says Dr. Charles Gerba,
a germ expert at the University of Arizona. But a good handwashing with
soap, or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, removes most infectious
germs. Wiping tables and desks with a disinfectant wipe, even just once
a day, also reduces infection rates, Gerba says.
For the rest of this article, go to NBC News
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