In a follow-up on a report last month on echovirus 30 (E30) increases in Norway, European health officials put out a report recently describing an increase in several countries of northern Europe.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), preliminary data shows 259 E30 detections from Denmark (38), Latvia (1), the Netherlands (85), Norway (37), Sweden (21) and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland; 77) were reported since the beginning of 2018.
In total, 149 out of 167 patients (89%) were reported with central nervous system symptoms from the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Of those, 27 were reported with meningitis, 26 encephalitis/meningitis and one patient with sepsis, fever, tachycardia and groaning respiration.
E30 is a non-polio enterovirus that causes aseptic meningitis outbreaks worldwide. Such outbreaks have been detected earlier in Europe and occur usually at five- to six-year intervals. At the moment, the exact transmission route of current infections is unknown. However, non-polio enteroviruses transmit usually through fecal-oral or oral-oral routes.
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