Enterovirus D68 case confirmed
One Windsor patient tests positive, so far
The child-sickening Enterovirus D68 is indeed in our midst, Windsor Regional Hospital officials confirmed Tuesday.
The first test result for children admitted to hospital with severe respiratory problems starting the weekend of Sept. 13 has come back positive for the rare virus that has hospitalized thousands of children in the U.S. Midwest in recent weeks, with some ending up in intensive care. The positive test in Windsor was for a boy admitted to hospital Sept. 15, who has since been discharged and is faring well at home, hospital CEO David Musyj said.
Since that spike in pediatric admissions started 11 days ago, there have been about 100 cases of kids with severe respiratory problems admitted to hospital for stays averaging between three and five days. The Sept. 15 admission is the first test result to come back, with more on the way, Musyj said.
“The results will start coming back with respect to the other patients who have been tested and we will be contacting their primary care physician and alerting them to the results of the test.”
He said the confirmation doesn’t really change how hospital staff are treating the children. Because there’s no medicine to treat the enterovirus, it’s the symptoms that they treat. “Nothing’s going to change with respect to the treatment plan,” Musyj said.
But health officials are hop- ing the spike in sick kids may be subsiding.
Since that Sept. 13 weekend, the hospital has had an average of 17 beds in its pediatrics unit occupied by kids with respiratory issues consistent with D68, plus about six to eight beds occupied by children with unrelated ailments like broken bones. On Monday, there were 15 patients with respiratory issues. But on Tuesday, the number of kids with respiratory issues had dropped to eight.
“Maybe this is the start of the drop? We do not know,” Musyj said. It’s too early to tell whether the sudden drop is the start of an encouraging trend or just an anomaly.
He said while there have been reports in the U.S. of large proportions of kids hospitalized with D68 ending up in ICU, the numbers have been much lower here, Musyj said. There have been a couple of children who have been transported to the pediatrics ICU in London and a few have required the adult ICU at Windsor Regional, but the vast majority have been cared for in Windsor Regional’s pediatrics unit. The symptoms can start off looking like a cold — a runny nose or cough. But things can get quickly worse. Medical officer of health Dr. Allen Heimann said if the child — particularly a child with pre-existing respiratory problems such as asthma — starts experiencing breathing difficulties, see your family doctor “sooner rather than later.”
Windsor Regional Hospital’s director of professional practice and operations Karen Riddell said one specific sign they’re seeing among these children is wheezing. The children often require oxygen therapy because they’re not moving enough oxygen into their lungs. An infant might have difficulty feeding and show lethargy. While health officials in the U.S. have expressed alarm over how seriously sick it makes kids, there have been no reported deaths from D68 in North America, according to Riddell.
To help guard against the spread, the hospital’s pediatrics unit can be visited only by people aged 18 and over. And health officials are urging everyone to regularly wash their hands and any surfaces, cough into their sleeves, and if you’re feeling ill to not go to school or hang out in big crowds.
While they don’t want people to overreact to cold-like symptoms, they also want people to watch in case the severity of symptoms increases rapidly. Go to your family doctor, your pediatrician, or in the case of an emergency, the hospital emergency, Musyj said.