WINNIPEG – A potentially severe respiratory illness that has struck children across Canada and the United States has been confirmed in Manitoba.
Three people have tested positive for Enterovirus D68 (also known as EV-D68), the province announced in a public health bulletin Thursday. The children, two from Winnipeg and one from northern Manitoba, have already been treated and released from hospital.
The overall risk to public health is minimal, officials said.
“We see this with other respiratory viruses, we see respiratory viruses that cause severe illness in a small percentage of people in every year and again, what we are seeing in Manitoba is not out of the norm in any other given year,” said Dr. Michael Routledge, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, at a meeting Thursday afternoon to brief media on the situation.
READ MORE: Enterovirus: Everything parents need to know about symptoms, treatment
Enterovirus D68 causes “a range of illness,” provincial health officials said. Symptoms are usually mild but “several clusters of severe respiratory illness in hospitalized children due to EV-D68 infection have been found in the United States and Canada.”
Doctors in other provinces are also investigating whether there is a link between Enterovirus D68 infection and a mysterious neurological illness that has left patients with muscle weakness and paralysis in the limbs and face. Patients with similar cases have also been reported in the U.S.
But a link between the respiratory illness and the cases of paralysis hasn’t been confirmed.
READ MORE: Is enterovirus the culprit for paralysis symptoms in Canadian kids?
Children with asthma or other lung disorders are most at risk from Enterovirus D68, Manitoba officials said.
“Respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough or a runny nose are the most common with EV-D68,” officials said in a news release. “It can also affect the lower respiratory tract, causing wheezing and shortness of breath.”
Enterovirus D68 has appeared in Manitoba before: in 2009, about 20 people, mostly children, were infected, provincial health officials said.
“If a child has a high fever, difficulty breathing, is not drinking well or not urinating, parents can contact their health-care provider, call Health Links-Info Sante in Winnipeg at 204-788-8200 or 1-888-315-9257 (toll-free), go to a walk-in clinic, a QuickCare Clinic or the nearest emergency department,” the province said.
Comments