Rare virus might be causing central Ohio kids’ respiratory illnesses
By Ben Sutherly
The Columbus Dispatch •
Thursday September 4, 2014 8:50 AM

Unusually high levels of respiratory illness have been reported this week in Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s emergency department, and samples are being sent out for testing to see whether a rare virus might be to blame.
“Obviously, it’s a concern,” Dr. Mysheika Williams

Roberts, medical director and assistant commissioner at Columbus Public Health, said of the volume of respiratory cases. “What we are experiencing is unusual for us this time of year.”

Last week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 52 patients per day in the hospital’s emergency department. From Sunday through Tuesday of this week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 73 patients per day, a 40 percent increase.

Some of those illnesses might be cases of human enterovirus 68, Roberts said. That virus apparently has sickened dozens of kids in the Kansas City, Mo., area, in recent weeks.

Nationwide Children’s officials said they hope the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can confirm whether any of the local hospital’s patients with respiratory problems are HEV68 cases.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of Nationwide Children’s recent cases of respiratory illness might be caused by HEV68, nor was it clear how many possible HEV68 cases resulted in hospitalization.

The hospital is testing only severely ill patients for the virus, which usually is not fatal but can cause wheezing and shortness of breath. There is no vaccine.

Columbus Public Health said typical precautions help to prevent the spread of the virus, including washing one’s hands before touching the eyes, nose or mouth and avoiding kissing, hugging and sharing eating utensils with those who might be infected. Disinfecting surfaces also is prudent.

HEV68, first isolated in California in 1962, is a unique enterovirus that shares characteristics with human rhinoviruses.

The hospital yesterday had not implemented visitor restrictions, a spokeswoman said; they are common during the winter-flu season. The spokeswoman also noted that visits to emergency departments and urgent-care centers sometimes increase when school resumes.

Nationwide Children’s is the only children’s hospital in Ohio that has contacted the Ohio Department of Health about sending specimens, said spokeswoman Melanie Amato.

Meanwhile, the state Health Department is expected to announce thatOhio’s measles outbreak is officially over. As of yesterday, no new cases of measles had been reported in Ohio since July 23. The state had said it would consider the outbreak officially over when two incubation periods, or 42 consecutive days, had passed.

In all, 377 cases were reported in Ashland, Coshocton, Crawford, Highland, Holmes, Knox, Richland, Stark and Wayne counties. The outbreak started in April.

Measles cases are at a 20-year high in the United States, driven largely by the outbreak among unvaccinated Amish populations in Ohio.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/09/03/Pediatric-respiratory-illnesses-enterovirus-68.html