As an illness known as Enterovirus D68 makes its way across the country, there are some children being treated locally who have symptoms consistent with the virus.
Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a pediatrician with UR Medicine, says the virus starts out like a common cold before more severe symptoms show up.
"The trouble with this virus is it causes a tremendous amount of wheezing in our patients and that is significant trouble breathing. So people really need to seek medical care and many children are needing hospitalization for this,” Murray said. “It's a dramatic change in children’s breathing that is bringing the concern with this virus."
Since it's a virus, there are no treatments for the illness. Doctors have been hospitalizing children and administering asthma medications to help with breathing.
Infants, children and teenagers seem to be more susceptible than adults. "Two theories on that,” Murray said. “One is, perhaps they haven't had exposure in the past, so they don't have immunity. But then the other situation is what we see with any of the winter respiratory viruses. We know that those are easily transmitted from child to child whether it's the school environment or the nature of how children are in close contact and hugging each other."
Dr. Murray says the best defense against Enterovirus is hand washing
