Enterovirus Claims Life of Young Boy
BANFIELD: With so much focus on Ebola, it's important to note that there is another dangerous virus that's posing a very real threat to children and it may be getting lost in some of the news mix. It's called Enterovirus and it continues to be a concern for parents across the country as this respiratory disease has now claimed the life of this beautiful little four-year-old boy from New Jersey. And what might be most frightening about this is that this little boy went to bed with absolutely no warning signs. He was effectively just fine, but he never woke up. And the cause of death was listed as Enterovirus. The death of little Eli is the first confirmed fatality directly caused by the mysterious illness. There's no other suggestion that something else was afoot. The officials say that Eli didn't suffer from any symptoms, anything, before he actually passed away. The CDC says there have been 538 cases in 43 states and four other deaths indirectly connected to this illness. The virus may also cause paralysis in rare cases. The mother, Erin Olivera says three-year-old -- her three-year-old son was left with a paralyzed leg after a bout with Enterovirus.</s>ERIN OLIVERA, SON HAS PARALYZED LEG FROM ENTEROVIRUS: There is nothing worse than watching your child who is crawling one moment and then, within a matter of 24 hours, not able to even lift their head off the bed.</s>BANFIELD: Joining me to talk about this virus is Dr. Alexandra Garza, joining me again, the associate dean for the College of Public Health and Emergency Medicine at St. Louis University. And I'm also joined live here by Dr. Amar Safdar, who's a professor of infectious diseases at NYU's Langone Medical Center. And if I can start with you, Dr. Safdar. First and foremost, this is in New Jersey. It's close to New York. The first thing I thought of was, how on earth could Enterovirus operate so fast. This little boy effectively died in his sleep.</s>AMAR SAFDAR, PROFESSOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NYU: Yes. So the important thing to realize about Enterovirus is that they are fairly common. We see them active during summer and fall.</s>BANFIELD: But different strains.</s>SAFDAR: By the end of fall -</s>BANFIELD: I mean there are hundreds of strains of Enterovirus, right?</s>SAFDAR: There are different kind of Enteroviruses and they keep on switching depending which year you look at. This - this --</s>BANFIELD: But this one, 68, is the one that's causing so much -</s>SAFDAR: Absolutely.</s>BANFIELD: And how common is 68? Because that's the one that's raising the fear.</s>SAFDAR: So -- you're absolutely right. So this has been around for a while. The first identification was in 1962 in a child in California. Since then, 1989 to 1993, there have been about 10 plus cases. So I think about 12 or 15. So less than 15 cases. So it hasn't been very active. So it hasn't really come up because we haven't seen so much of it. This year is unusual because we are seeing, as you said, 500 plus cases and almost across the nation, 43 states. So that includes even a state that has got a one child, that state is included in reporting that particular case. And other states have reported more cases. As you know, in Missouri and Illinois, that is where they saw initially and reported the big brunt of the disease so to speak.</s>BANFIELD: Well, Dr. Garza, if I could bring you in on this as well. I think the biggest concern is that there was just no hope for this child. He went to bed fine. The parents couldn't even call a doctor to say, he seems to be sick. This has got to be a one-off. Is this - I mean I hope you're going to tell me, this is a one-off, this is not typical, and that people shouldn't fear what this virus can do.</s>ALEXANDRA GARZA, ASSOC. DEAN OF PUBLIC HEALTH, ST. LOUIS UNIV.: Well, you're right, Ashleigh. this was an atypical presentation. So mostly this virus acts like a common cold. Kids will get fevers. They'll get muscle aches. They'll have a cough, a runny nose. But it most - it hits kids that have respiratory ailments, like asthma, much more severely than it does normal children. And so this was definitely a very unusual presentation of the virus.</s>BANFIELD: Dr. Safdar, is there something that, look, as a parent, I want to know what I've got to look out for.</s>SAFDAR: Sure.</s>BANFIELD: I want to know what I have to do. If my son comes home from school, which effectively is a petri dish, let's be honest, children are no good with germs and protecting themselves.</s>SAFDAR: Right.</s>BANFIELD: If he's sniffling and if he has a fever, am I to rush off and get him a test for Enterovirus? Is that the best weapon against this?</s>SAFDAR: Yes. So the kids that have developed really severe disease due to this particular D-68 strain of Enterovirus are the ones who have asthma, broncho (ph) reactive states where they have -</s>BANFIELD: They already have</s>SAFDAR: They already have an underlying broncho reactive wheezing to different temperatures and so and so forth. So I think a healthy child usually, as Dr. Garza mentioned, the infection really remains as an upper respiratory tract cold-like infection, because a virus really behaves like a rhino virus.</s>BANFIELD: We'll have to - we'll have to keep an eye on this. I'm flat out of time. But thank you so much for coming in. I do appreciate it, Dr. Safdar.</s>SAFDAR: Thank you. A pleasure.</s>BANFIELD: And also Dr. Garza, thank you both. We really appreciate it. Our coverage continues on these breaking stories that we've been bringing to you. I'm going to pass over the baton to my colleague, Wolf Blitzer. He begins right after this quick break. Thanks for watching.