With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) announcement about implementing a new, faster diagnostic test for enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) two weeks ago, the federal health agency daily update of cases is rising at a little faster pace.
The latest numbers from the CDC shows the number of confirmed cases of EV-D68 has now reached 1,101 cases in 47 states and DC.
The CDC says that of the more than 2,000 specimens tested by the CDC lab, about 40% have tested positive for EV-D68. About one third have tested positive for an enterovirus or rhinovirus other than EV-D68.
There are eight states reporting “elevated activity” of EV-D68–California, Washington, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maine, while most states report low or declining activity.
Three states have not reported any confirmed EV-D68 cases–Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska.
They expect that, as with other enteroviruses, EV-D68 infections will likely begin to decline by late fall.
In related news, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have sequenced the genome of enterovirus D68 sampled from patients treated at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The work appeared Oct. 28 in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“Having the DNA sequence of this virus enables additional research,” said senior author Gregory A. Storch, MD, the Ruth L. Siteman Professor of Pediatrics. “It can be used to create better diagnostic tests. It also may help us understand why this epidemic seems to be producing severe and unusual disease, and why it’s spreading more extensively than in the past.”
