Title: Enterovirus D68- The New Polio?<br/>Author: Jon Mark Hirshon<br/><a href='http://umem.org/profiles/faculty/96/'>[Click to email author]</a><hr/><p>
<strong>Background: </strong></p>
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Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease
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Can cause temporary or permanent acute flaccid paralysis</li>
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Fecal-oral or oral transmission</li>
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The majority of cases of polio infection are asymptomatic</li>
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The public/global health significance of polio has been discussed in previous UMEM Educational Pearls (See: 5/7/2014 and 12/18/2013).</li>
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Caused by small, single-strand, positive-sense RNA virus of the genus <em>Enterovirus</em></li>
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<strong>Enterovirus D68</strong></p>
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Recent widespread nationwide outbreak of this non-polio enterovirus
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From mid-August 2014 to January 15, 2015, federal and state public health laboratories confirmed 1,153 people with infections</li>
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Usually seen in children</li>
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Usually causes mild to severe respiratory illness.</li>
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Concurrent with the national outbreak of Enterovirus D68, there was a concurrent increase in children with acute flaccid myelitis</li>
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<strong>Is there a relationship between <em>Enterovirus D68</em> and the outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis?</strong></p>
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Recent NIH funded research published in Lancet Infectious Disease analyzed the genomes of 48 patients with enterovirus infections
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Phylogenetic analysis showed that all enterovirus D68 sequences associated with acute flaccid myelitis were part of the same clade B1 strain .</li>
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These findings strengthen the possible relationship between enterovirus D68 and acute flaccid myelitis</li>
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<strong>Bottom Line</strong></p>
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Acute flaccid myelitis may rarely occur after <em>Enterovirus D68 </em>in susceptible hosts</li>
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<fieldset><legend>References</legend>
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<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/polio/">http://www.cdc.gov/polio/</a></p>
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http://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/ev-d68.html</p>
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http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2815%2970093-9/abstract</p>
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