America’s Pediatric Infectious Disease Experts are on alert over reports of more than a dozen cases of dangerous and often fatal viral sepsis in babies in Europealong with the increasing circulation of similar viruses that typically spike in the summer and early fall.
“Here we are all in suspense”, says Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
enteroviruses
Enteroviruses can severely affect newborns, whose immune systems are not mature enough to fight the infection. “Most cause very mild illness in children,” Mike Ryan, director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, told a briefing on Wednesday.. “But in a small proportion there is much more significant and catastrophic disease,” he added.
Echo virus-11
In May, the WHO drew attention to a cluster of a particular type of enterovirus, called echovirus-11. Nine babies had been infected in France in their first month of life and had developed organ failure and sepsis. Seven died.
It’s more than you might expect, a WHO spokesperson wrote in an email. “It is considered unusual due to the extremely rapid deterioration and associated case fatality rate among affected infants,” the spokesperson wrote. Echoviruses can spread through fecal matter or inhalation of respiratory droplets, and they usually live in the digestive system.
Cases in Italy
In Italy, two twin babies were found to be infected with the same strain of echovirus-11. One of them was seriously ill and remained in intensive care. And in the UK they reported an equally unusual increase in severe myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart., among 10 babies who had another enterovirus called coxsackievirus. At least one died.
WHO is expected to update global reports of enterovirus-related neonatal sepsis later this week.
Strains
There is no way to know if those specific strains are already in the US and have made some babies sick. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not have an active reporting system for neonatal enteroviral disease or enteroviruses in general. According to the CDC, more than 100 types of enteroviruses can infect people.
“Although we do not have routine surveillance for enteroviruses, CDC has other surveillance systems that we use to quickly monitor and assess for signs of outbreaks and increases in specific types of enteroviruses,” Dr. Janell Routh, chief of the CDC’s division of viral diseases, said in a statement.
“As viral circulation has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain vigilant for any changes in enterovirus transmission,” explained.