Can somebody please explain the difference between EV-D68 and the common cold, IF ANY. There was a big rush in local (Colorado) Urgent Care clinics a few weeks ago with kids presenting with symptoms of the common cold. I am inclined to think this is a case of media hyping the normal back-to-school spread of the common cold.
It is a lot more serious because it starts with cold symptoms and induces asthma-like symptoms, difficulty breathing, etc.
If the patient already has asthma, it could be deadly.
There seem to be multiple colds going around in our area. There are cases of the bad cold here. The difference seems to be that the bad cold causes severe breathing difficulties that asthma meds do not help. Or that is what I am hearing from parents. Throw in whooping cough cases, and you have a mess. Vaccines against whooping cough are apparently not working.
We had a bad cold go through out house over the past few months. It took six weeks for one of my children to get over it. We have friends whose four year old was out of school from Tuesday through Friday. He was tested for the bad cold and for whooping cough. His tests were negative, but that is small comfort as he is still sick. There are other viruses going around as well. It is enough to make you stay home and keep your children home.
Another problem I have learned about is that there are parents who send their sick children to school and who lie about the doctor saying the child is better. Thankfully, the teacher did not buy the parents lies, and she double checked with the school nurse before allowing two sick children to return to her classroom.