The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently investigating approximately 30 suspected enterovirus D68 cases in children at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. This report comes nine days after New Jersey’s first case of the respiratory virus was confirmed.
“We’re looking at it as a nasty flu strain,” says Dr. Lawrence Rosen, past integrative medicine chair at the American Academy of Pediatrics and founder of the Whole Child Center in Oradell, NJ. Especially since doctors can’t diagnose Entrovirus D68 on the spot when they see a patient. “You can’t just go to a doctor and get a test done…even local ERs don’t have a specific test for this enterovirus. It gets sent out to the CDC and takes a while to come back.”
While enterovirus peak season (July–October) will end in the next couple of weeks, Dr. Margaret Fisher, Monmouth County-based pediatric disease specialist, says children with chronic respiratory conditions are still highly susceptible. “Children with underlying asthma, they have had severe distress and many have ended up in intensive care units,” says Fisher. “If your child—especially if they have asthma or a chronic lung condition—is developing a significant cough with any kind of breathing distress, seek medical attention,” adds Rosen.
In most cases, however, hospitalization isn’t necessary, says Fisher. “I think some of the numbers [of hospitalized cases] have been perhaps as much as 10 percent, maybe even lower than that.”
There is currently no cure or treatment for the virus, but Fisher suggests what she calls “supportive care.” “Make sure the child is getting enough to drink, getting enough rest…kids should stay home while they’re sick so they don’t spread the virus around,” she says.
According to the CDC, the disease has reached 38 states in total at this point with 226 confirmed cases across the country.
Learn more about enterovirus D68, the serious respiratory infection that’s hit NJ.
