ABSTRACT
The etiology of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) has yet to be determined. Viral link has been suggested, but severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-associated AFM has not been reported in children. We describe a three-year-old boy, with AFM associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. In the era of COVID-19 pandemic, patients with AFM should be tested for SARS-CoV-2.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Central Nervous System Viral Diseases , Enterovirus D, Human , Enterovirus Infections , Myelitis , Neuromuscular Diseases , Male , Child , Humans , Child, Preschool , Pandemics , COVID-19/complications , Enterovirus Infections/complications , Enterovirus Infections/diagnosis , SARS-CoV-2 , Myelitis/diagnostic imaging , Myelitis/etiology , Myelitis/epidemiology , Neuromuscular Diseases/complications , Central Nervous System Viral Diseases/complications , Central Nervous System Viral Diseases/diagnosis , Central Nervous System Viral Diseases/epidemiology , Acute DiseaseABSTRACT
Polio is a serious infection that is rare in the UK due to the vaccination programme. It is only found in a few countries worldwide and the chances of getting it in the UK are extremely low, according to the NHS.
ABSTRACT
We report a rapid increase in enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infections, with 139 cases reported from eight European countries between 31 July and 14 October 2021. This upsurge is in line with the seasonality of EV-D68 and was presumably stimulated by the widespread reopening after COVID-19 lockdown. Most cases were identified in September, but more are to be expected in the coming months. Reinforcement of clinical awareness, diagnostic capacities and surveillance of EV-D68 is urgently needed in Europe.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Enterovirus D, Human , Enterovirus Infections , Enterovirus , Myelitis , Respiratory Tract Infections , Communicable Disease Control , Disease Outbreaks , Enterovirus D, Human/genetics , Enterovirus Infections/diagnosis , Enterovirus Infections/epidemiology , Europe/epidemiology , Humans , Myelitis/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Infection with enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) has been linked with severe neurological disease such as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) in recent years. However, active surveillance for EV-D68 is lacking, which makes full assessment of this association difficult. Although a high number of EV-D68 infections were expected in 2020 based on the EV-D68's known biannual circulation patterns, no apparent increase in EV-D68 detections or AFM cases was observed during 2020. We describe an upsurge of EV-D68 detections in wastewater samples from the United Kingdom between July and November 2021 mirroring the recently reported rise in EV-D68 detections in clinical samples from various European countries. We provide the first publicly available 2021 EV-D68 sequences showing co-circulation of EV-D68 strains from genetic clade D and sub-clade B3 as in previous years. Our results show the value of environmental surveillance (ES) for the early detection of circulating and clinically relevant human viruses. The use of a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach helped us to estimate the prevalence of EV-D68 viruses among EV strains from other EV serotypes and to detect EV-D68 minor variants. The utility of ES at reducing gaps in virus surveillance for EV-D68 and the possible impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions introduced to control the COVID-19 pandemic on EV-D68 transmission dynamics are discussed.
Subject(s)
Enterovirus D, Human/isolation & purification , Wastewater/virology , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Capsid Proteins/genetics , Enterovirus D, Human/classification , Enterovirus D, Human/genetics , Humans , Phylogeny , RNA, Viral/genetics , SARS-CoV-2 , Sequence Analysis, DNA , United Kingdom/epidemiology , Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring , Water MicrobiologyABSTRACT
School nurses may deal with students presenting with symptoms associated with infections popularized in the news. Although rare, the implications of missing or misdiagnosing these infections are potentially life-threatening and devastating. We present three students presenting with febrile illnesses associated with neurologic symptoms, a rash, and fatigue, focusing on the initial assessment and management of these students and their associated "hot topic" infection. The authors also discuss two public health organizations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/) and the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/), online references for the school nurse to research both emerging and common infectious diseases.