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Viral Infection Blamed As More Than 120 Students At Schererville School Stay Home Sick October 8, 2014 10:04 PM Health, Peifer Elementary School, Schereville, schools, sick Brad Edwards Latest News Headlines: (CBS) — A viral infection is being blamed for more than a hundred sick kids at a school in Schererville, Ind. CBS 2’s Brad Edwards reports, with the sterility of operation room precision, from Hoosier Hall to nurse Schmidt’s office, it’s a scrub down at Peifer Elementary School. “It’s a little alarming just because that’s a lot of kids,” said Jennifer Howard, a parent of two kids at the...

When the experts describe the Ebola disaster, they do so with numbers. The statistics include not just the obvious ones such as caseloads, deaths and the rate of infection, but also the ones that describe the speed of the global response. Right now, the math still favors the virus. Global health officials are looking closely at the “reproduction number,” which estimates how many people, on average, will catch the virus from each person stricken with Ebola. The epidemic will begin to decline when that number falls below one. A recent analysis estimated the number at 1.5 to two. The number...

SEABROOK — A 13-year-old Seabrook boy has been hospitalized for roughly a week in Boston due to paralysis and other symptoms his doctors believe may be connected to enterovirus D68, severe cases of which have been reported across the country since August. Patrick Dugan said his son Dan was brought last week to an intensive care unit at Tufts Medical Center after Dan’s legs gave out multiple times following weeks of headaches, coughing, vomiting, weakness and double vision. Those symptoms were followed by paralysis in Dan’s lower extremities and left shoulder as well as indications of spinal cord nerve damage,...

Link to Illegal Immigrant Children? Enteroviruses commonly circulate in the U.S. during summer and fall. EV-D68 was first identified in California in 1962. Over the past thirty years, only small numbers were reported in the U.S. The CDC hasn’t suggested reasons for the current uptick or its origin. Without that answer, some question whether the disease is being spread by the presence of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children from Central America admitted to the U.S. in the past year. The origin could be entirely unrelated. However, a study published in Virology Journal, found EV-D68 among some of the...

HAMILTON >> On Saturday officials confirmed that the death of four-year-old Eli Waller, was caused by the Enterovirus D68 strain. Little Eli Waller, one of three triplets, was asymptomatic according to Jeff Plunkett just prior to his death, Officials had been waiting to hear news of what may come of the findings from samples sent to the CDC regarding Waller, a process that was expedited with the help of Congressman Chris Smith. Late Friday evening officials were tasked with informing Waller’s family that the tests showed that the 4-year-old died as a result of what Plunkett described as a particularly...

The number of children treated in Colorado for limb weakness or paralysis-like symptoms after coming down with a respiratory virus has risen to 11, a hospital official said on Friday. Melissa Vizcarra, spokeswoman for Children's Hospital Colorado, said the child in the latest case is suffering from muscle weakness but tests have not conclusively linked it to a nationwide outbreak of Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68).

While most folks have had their eyes diverted by the Ebola scare, another illness is hitting hundreds of kids especially hard this year. Some have become paralyzed by the illness, and others have died. Calling it the "mystery illness," doctors say it is a strain of viruses called Enterovirus 68, and it has hit kids from California to the East Coast. First diagnosed in the U.S. in 1962, the virus has been rare here. But this year it has exploded for unknown reasons. As Breitbart News reported, since mid-September, more and more cases of this mysterious respiratory illness have broken...

At least two Colorado adults have died from complications from what may be enterovirus-68, the same strain that has afflicted hundreds, mostly children, across the country. Dr. Phil Emrie, a critical care pulmonologist at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, says he treated adult patients who suffered from conditions similar to the virus. “We don’t know for sure that it’s the enterovirus-68, but we do know that it’s consistent with the illness that they’re seeing in children,” Emrie said. That specific virus has been diagnosed primarily in children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported approximately 500 cases...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CBS Connecticut/AP) — The Rhode Island Health Department says a child has died from complications of an unusual respiratory virus that has been affecting children across the U.S. Health officials said Wednesday that the 10-year-old girl died last week of a staph infection associated with the enterovirus 68 infection, which it called “a very rare combination.” “We are all heartbroken to hear about the death of one of Rhode Island’s children,” Dr. Michael Fine, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, said in a statement. “Many of us will have EV-D68. Most of us will have very...

An unusual respiratory virus has sickened more than 400 children across the United States, and the emergence of sudden paralysis in some Colorado youths is sparking concern among doctors. The nationwide outbreak of enterovirus D68 -- which can cause wheezing and coughing -- coincided with the hospitalization of nine children due to limb weakness in Colorado since early August, and officials are investigating if there is any link between the two.

What is the first thing that leaps to your mind when you hear about a mystery virus that has afflicted children around the country just as the school year started? I know what it is. You know what it is. And many of the readers commenting on The Hill article know what it is. Even the writer, Susan Ferris, most likely knows what it is but does not mention the warning that dares not speak its name...at least in The Hill. I am of course referring to the many health warnings about the illegal children who crossed the border and...

Besser warned parents to watch out for symptoms of coughs and wheezing among their children, especially if their children are asthmatic. "The best approach for prevention is what we talk about all the time for respiratory infections, colds, and flus and that's really good hand washing," Besser said. ... Children who contract enterovirus D68 first suffer from what appears to be a common cold, with symptoms including a runny nose, coughing, and sneezing, according to Besser. The symptoms then escalate to difficulty breathing. Besser said parents should look out for their children exhibiting signs of wheezing, difficulty eating or speaking,...

ORLANDO -- Health officials say there’s only been about 100 confirmed cases of the upper-respiratory Enterovirus D68 since it was identified in the 1960s. But in the past few weeks, hundreds of children in at least 12 states have been hospitalized with a serious respiratory infection, and doctors believe it’s a resurgence of the virus. The early symptoms of EV-D68 are much like the common cold. Doctors said this virus can last longer, and cause major breathing problems, especially in children with asthma. “Even patients with no prior respiratory illnesses, this virus has caused some asthma-like symptoms,” said Dr. Federico...

A rare respiratory illness that’s sickened more than a thousand kids in 10 states is likely to spread all across the United States, ABC News reported, citing doctors. More from ABC News: The disease hasn’t been officially identified in every state, but in some states a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68 has been found. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. …At least 10 states — Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia — have reported suspected outbreaks of human...

(CNN) — A respiratory virus is sending hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri and possibly throughout the Midwest and beyond, officials say. The unusually high number of hospitalizations reported now could be “just the tip of the iceberg in terms of severe cases,” said Mark Pallansch, a virologist and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Viral Diseases. “We’re in the middle of looking into this,” he told CNN on Sunday. “We don’t have all the answers yet.”

The Department of Homeland Security failed to assess the supplies it needed to deal with a potential pandemic and now has expired stockpiles including medications, 200,000 respirators and 4,184 bottles of hand sanitizers, an inspector general report showed. The department bought 16 million surgical masks and 350,000 white coverall suits without establishing the need for them, according to its inspector general's report, which included photographs of stacks of unopened boxes piled high in a storeroom.

Reference article about fomites and spread of viruses in offic enclosed environments. Long technical article. Pertains to enteric and Norovirus among others. Short version via MailOnline available here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2748351/Why-really-need-wash-hands-work-Infections-spread-office-door-handle-half-workforce-just-two-HOURS.html (Snip) Study found between 40 and 60 per cent of office contaminated in two hours Pushing buttons in lifts and touching phones spread infection quickest  Disinfectant wipes and regularly washing hands is best way to kill germs   Infections can spread from an office door handle to half the workforce in just two hours, new research has found.  Using tracer viruses, a study found as much as 60 per cent of...

A respiratory illness that has already sickened more than a thousand children in 10 states is likely to become a nationwide problem, doctors say. The disease hasn't been officially identified but officials suspect a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. According to Mark Pallansch, director of the Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC, similar cases to the ones in Colorado have been cropping up across the U.S. At least 10 states...

An unprecedented lung virus that has infected over 1000 children across 10 states from the Midwest to the east coast is likely to spread to the rest of the country, doctors have warned. Hospitals have reported unusually high numbers of children being admitted - some into intensive care - with the same viral symptoms, which usually start as a common cold before developing into severe respiratory distress. Experts have not yet been able to officially identity the virus, however some cases have tested positive to Enterovirus D68 or EV-D68, a rare respiratory virus that typically causes asthma-like symptoms. Suspected outbreaks...

Over a one-year period, five children in California developed a polio-like illness that caused severe weakness or paralysis in their arms and legs, a new case study reports. In two of the children, their symptoms have now been linked with an extremely rare virus called enterovirus-68. Like the poliovirus, which has been eradicated in the U.S. since 1979 thanks to the polio vaccine, strains of enterovirus in rare cases can invade and injure the spine. These are the first reported cases of polio-like symptoms being caused by enterovirus in the United States. During the last decade, outbreaks of polio-like symptoms...