Official: Enterovirus no ‘cause for concern’ in California for now

A respiratory virus that has sickened children in the Midwest -- and is being investigated in other states too -- should not worry Californians at the moment, according to a state public health official.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that clusters of infections with the virus known as enterovirus D68 had erupted in Illinois and in Missouri -- posing a particular threat to kids with preexisting respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

But on Tuesday, Dr. James Watt, chief of the division of communicable disease control at the California Department of Public Health, urged Californians not to worry excessively about the virus for now. He said there is no evidence of any unusual respiratory outbreaks in California like the ones in Chicago and Kansas City.

“We’re not seeing any signals out there that there’s anything unusual going on. We’re not getting reports of clusters or outbreaks,” Watt said in an interview with The Times. “At present we don’t see a cause for concern for this particular virus.”

Allen Solomon, a spokesman for Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health, said his agency has not received reports of unusual levels of respiratory illness.

According to the CDC, there are more than 100 types of enteroviruses, which can cause a range of illnesses, including cold-like symptoms and gastrointestinal woes.

During a news conference Monday, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said an estimated 10 million to 15 million enterovirus infections occur in the U.S. each year. In general, most of these infections are asymptomatic or cause only mild illnesses, and they occur most frequently in the summer or fall. Enterovirus D68 is a relatively rare form of the virus.

Healthcare providers are not required to report enterovirus infections to the state, but Watt said his agency had asked local health partners to send it specimens when enterovirus infection was suspected so epidemiologists can try to understand whether enterovirus D68 is circulating widely in California.

The virus was first identified in California in 1962 and was recently detected in two patients here who suffered from a polio-like paralytic illnesses. Watt said it was unknown whether enterovirus D68 caused paralysis in those cases or was merely incidental.

Frequent hand-washing and other standard prevention strategies can protect against enterovirus infection, he said.

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