Enterovirus D68 - Research Paper Example

The virus has been associated to cause serious respiratory symptoms, and it can be particularly serious for children with asthma or other illnesses that make breathing difficult. For such children, the infection can result in hospitalization and death if appropriate action are not taken (Sawyer, 45). The paper analyses the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, lab diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Since the discovery of enterovirus in 1962, it has been described mostly as sporadically in isolated cases.

Enterovirus cases have been described to occur during warm months, from spring to autumn. Many parts in the United States have experienced an outbreak of the virus that has sent hundreds of children into hospitalization according to the centre of disease control. Children less than five years old and those with asthma appear to be the most a risk of enterovirus D68 illness. It was found in 2 out of 5 children during a 2012- 2013 cluster of the polio-like disease in California. In addition, adults with asthma and those immunosuppressed have a risk of the illness.

Six outbreaks between 2005 and 2011 have been reported in Philippines, Netherlands and Japan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and states of Georgia (Tebruegge and Curtis, 226). Enterovirus caused clusters of respiratory disease in August 2014 and by mid-October 691 individuals in 46 US states and the Columbia district had come own with a respiratory illness caused by the virus, where five children also died. In 2014, clusters of cases were reported in parts of Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania. The number of states affected with the virus is expected to rise as testing of specimen backlog continues.

In Netherlands, the virus was detected in 70 persons during the period of 1995 and 2010 of which 57 were symptomatic. The most prevalent affected persons are asthma