CDC: 2017 to 2018 saw increase in enterovirus D68 detection

(HealthDay)—Based on active surveillance data of acute respiratory illness (ARI), enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was detected in 0.8 percent of patients in 2017 and in 13.9 percent in 2018, according to research published in the March 29 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Stephanie A. Kujawski, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues detailed a preliminary characterization of EV-D68 testing and detections among emergency department and hospitalized patients with ARI during July 1 to Oct. 31, 2017, and during the same period in 2018 at seven New Vaccine Surveillance Network sites.

The researchers detected EV-D68 in two patients (0.8 percent) in 2017 and in 358 patients (13.9 percent) in 2018. In 2017, one patient was hospitalized and one was evaluated in the emergency department; the patients were at two different sites. In 2018, 67.6 percent of patients were hospitalized; patients were identified at all seven sites. Of the 2018 EV-D68 detections, 47.2 percent occurred in September; the peak of detections varied by site.

"Continued surveillance for EV-D68-associated ARI is needed to better understand the epidemiology of EV-D68 in the United States," the authors write.