It’s called enterovirus 68, and it’s spreading like crazy. the danger of a virus like this is if it overwhelms hospitals’ abilities to deal with ICU overflow:
Doctors say they are not even sure yet how this particular virus spreads, though the back-to-school season is a normal time for illnesses to spread among children.
“This is a very common time for outbreaks. Kids come back to school, they like to share things, they bring them home to their little brothers and sisters, and enteroviruses tend to occur in the summer,” Besser said. “But this one, this particular Enterovirus 68, is very rare and they have no idea why it showed up this year.”
At Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver, officials say that between Aug. 18 and Sept. 4, doctors saw more than 900 pediatric patients with symptoms of the respiratory virus in the emergency room. Of those who came in, 86 were admitted into the hospital and a handful ended up in the intensive care unit.
“It can start just like a cold — runny nose, sneezing, coughs — but it’s the wheezing you have to watch out for,” Besser said.
Dr. Christine Nyquist, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said the virus usually ends up appearing similar to a severe cold but can be particularly dangerous for children with asthma because of how it affects the respiratory system.
“The kids are coming in with respiratory symptoms, their asthma is exacerbated,” Nyquist said. “Kids with no wheezing are having wheezing.”
Everybody knows that Germany lost World War I. But why Germany lost is not often talked about. The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1917-1919 was the reason. Spanish Influenza decimated the ranks of the German army. Curiously this influenza hit young men under the age of 30 the hardest. Rarely does that happen. The first known case of the Spanish flu was reported at Fort Riley, Kansas. At the time Fort Riley was an army biological warfare center. The flu spread to Boston where thousands of infected GI’s from Fort Riley were loaded onto ships bound for the European war zone. So from what location did Enterovirus 68 mysteriously originate?