Human enterovirus D68

Until the large outbreak of 2014 in North America, Human enterovirus D68 (EV D-68) was considered a rare and uneventful virus (Oberste et al., 2004). EV D-68 was associated with respiratory tract illnesses, which were first isolated in children suffering from pneumonia and bronchiolitis (Elrick et al., 2021). Following from the surveillance work on Influenza A from 2009 small and localised outbreaks were identified in different parts of the world and EV D-68 epidemiology started to raise interest (Meijer et al., 2010) (Tokarz et al., 2011) (Rahamat-Langendoen et al., 2011) (Hasegawa et al., 2011) (Imamura et al., 2011) (Kaida, et al., 2011) (Ikeda et al., 2012).

By 2014 the virus had varied considerably antigenically from the Fermon strain first isolated in 1962 (Fang et al., 2021) (Schieble et al., 1967) and could now cause severe respiratory and neurological disease potentially progressing to requiring ventilator support. And neurological disease, such as meningo-encephalitis and polio-like symptoms, such as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) (Holm-Hansen et al., 2016) (UK GOV, 2018). Cases of EV D-68 infection are more likely in children between the age ranges of 6 months to 5 years of age, who normally lack previous exposure immunity (Kamau et al., 2019). In children with asthma or other pre-existing respiratory problems it can more easily lead to severe disease or even death (Imamura et al., 2015).

Human enterovirus D68 (EV D-68) passage from an 2015 isolate of the B2 subclade was recently added to the NCPV catalogue as new accession (NCPV 2210112v).

 

Written by Teresa Ramalho

 

References

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Elrick, M. J., Pekosz, A., & Duggal, P. (2021). Enterovirus D68 molecular and cellular biology and pathogenesis. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 296.

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Hasegawa, S., Hirano, R., Okamoto-Nakagawa, R., Ichiyama, T., & Shirabe, K. (2011). Enterovirus 68 infection in children with asthma attacks: virus-induced asthma in Japanese children. Allergy, 66(12).

Imamura, T., Fuji, N., Suzuki, A., Tamaki, R., Saito, M., Aniceto, R., ... & Oshitani, H. (2011). Enterovirus 68 among children with severe acute respiratory infection, the Philippines. Emerging infectious diseases, 17(8), 1430.

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Ikeda, T., Mizuta, K., Abiko, C., Aoki, Y., Itagaki, T., Katsushima, F., & Ahiko, T. (2012). Acute respiratory infections due to enterovirus 68 in Yamagata, Japan between 2005 and 2010. Microbiology and immunology, 56(2), 139-143.

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Holm-Hansen, C. C., Midgley, S. E., & Fischer, T. K. (2016). Global emergence of enterovirus D68: a systematic review. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 16(5), e64-e75.

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Kamau, E., Harvala, H., Blomqvist, S., Nguyen, D., Horby, P., Pebody, R., & Simmonds, P. (2019). Increase in enterovirus D68 infections in young children, United Kingdom, 2006–2016. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 25(6), 1200.

Imamura, T., & Oshitani, H. (2015). Global reemergence of enterovirus D68 as an important pathogen for acute respiratory infections. Reviews in medical virology, 25(2), 102-114.