Twin Cities internist Chris Foley is a faithful reader whom I know in his professional capacity.
Today he writes to address the case of the mystery
virus:
It might be worth a short commentary re the connection between the sudden “mystery”
virus that is hospitalizing children all over the US
and the indiscriminate distribution of illegal alien kids “all over the US.”
By the way the article from the
Journal that I cited [linked above] likely represents gross underreporting which is
typical in South America.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/09/the-case-of-the-mystery-virus.php
In a study of 3,375 people aged 25 years old and younger who came to clinics in Latin America presenting with flu like respiratory illness, 16% of them had a rhinovirus (HRV’s, i.e. the common cold) of which 38% of those rhinoviruses identified were the strain HRV-C.
3% were identified as having a human enterovirus (HEV) out of which most were found to be between HEV-A/HEV-B. In addition to those more common strains, both EV-D68 and EV-A71 were identified. The abstract doesn’t say in what percentages, but if HEV’s only made up 3% and most of them were HEV-A/HEV-B, one could assume that EV-D68, while identified, made up a smaller percentage of the 3%.
Additionally the abstract seems to conclude that in Latin America, their findings were statistically similar to those in as those found in “other regions”.
And by reading the full study:
Among HEVs, coxsackieviruses, both A and B, were the most predominant. We also identified low numbers of EV-D68, which has been associated with respiratory disease by others [10], although never in the countries of our study. In addition, we identified two cases of EV-A71, an agent traditionally associated with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, as well as severe neurological and cardiac complications [36,37]. EV-A71 has also been infrequently linked with respiratory disease in Canada [38], Taiwan [39], and Australia [40], although never in Latin America.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) belong to the Picornaviridae family with high similarity to human enteroviruses (HEVs). Limited data is available from Latin America regarding the clinical presentation and strains of these viruses in respiratory disease.
METHODS:
We collected nasopharyngeal swabs at clinics located in eight Latin American countries from 3,375 subjects aged 25 years or younger who presented with influenza-like illness.
RESULTS:
Our subjects had a median age of 3 years and a 1.2:1.0 male:female ratio. HRV was identified in 16% and HEV was identified in 3%. HRVs accounted for a higher frequency of isolates in those of younger age, in particular children < 1 years old. HRV-C accounted for 38% of all HRVs detected. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a high proportion of recombinant strains between HRV-A/HRV-C and between HEV-A/HEV-B. In addition, both EV-D68 and EV-A71 were identified.
CONCLUSIONS:
In Latin America as in other regions, HRVs and HEVs account for a substantial proportion of respiratory viruses identified in young people with ILI, a finding that provides additional support for the development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines targeting these pathogens.