The number of states reporting at least confirmed case of Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) has increased to 46 and the District of Columbia as Oregon is the latest to see a confirmed case.
As of today, 678 people have been confirmed with the virus via testing by the CDC or state public health laboratories.
In addition, the federal health agency reports EV-D68 has been detected in specimens from five patients who died and had samples submitted for testing.
State and local officials have the authority to determine the cause of death, including the role that EV-D68 may have played. They also have the authority to determine the appropriate information to release, and the time to release it.
CDC has obtained one complete genomic sequence and six nearly complete genomic sequences from viruses representing the three known strains of EV-D68 that are causing infection at this time.
Comparison of these sequences to sequences from previous years shows they are genetically related to strains of EV-D68 that were detected in previous years in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
CDC has submitted the sequences to GenBank to make them available to the scientific community for further testing and analysis. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page