Enterovirus activity increased last week, with nearly 14,000 hospital visits reported, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it reminded people to practice good hand hygiene and food safety amid clustered cases of diarrhea.
Enterovirus entered the epidemic phase, with more than 11,000 hospital visits reported in the previous week, the CDC said last week.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) yesterday said that hospital visits for enterovirus infections increased 17.3 percent to 13,929 from a week earlier, the highest weekly number in a decade.
Photo: CNA
The main circulating viruses are Coxsackie A, but enterovirus D68 and enterovirus A71 have also been detected, including a new mild enterovirus A71 case reported last week involving a one-year-old boy, Lee said, adding that seven cases of enterovirus A71 and two cases of enterovirus D68 have been reported this year.
Previous outbreaks of enterovirus D68 were linked to more severe respiratory infections and outbreaks of enterovirus A71 were associated with more neurological complications, mostly in young children, she said.
“We must repeatedly remind people, especially parents, to be watchful for early signs of severe infections,” CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said, adding that if children with enterovirus infection show lethargy, drowsiness, altered consciousness, arm or leg weakness, muscle spasms, rapid heartbeat or shortness of breath, parents should immediately seek medical attention for them.
“The best method for preventing enterovirus infection is good hand hygiene,” Tseng said. “Alcohol-based hand disinfectants have less effect against enteroviruses, so children should wash their hands with soap and water to prevent infection, and that can also help prevent norovirus infection and diarrhea.”
Enteroviruses can infect adults and children, but as adults often only have mild or cold-like symptoms, they might ignore them and transmit the virus to young children or infants, so family members are advised to wash their hands thoroughly with soap before feeding or hugging young children, the CDC said.
Meanwhile, there were 112,108 hospital visits for diarrhea last week, an increase of 9 percent from the previous week, Lee said, adding that 189 clusters of diarrhea cases have been reported in the past four weeks, higher than the same period last year.
Of the 103 clusters that tested positive for pathogens, 91, or 88 percent, were caused by norovirus, she said.
Norovirus is very contagious and transmitted by contact with an infected person or contaminated environmental surfaces, or by eating or drinking contaminated food, so people should practice good hygiene and food safety methods, including separating raw and cooked food and utensils and chopping boards, and avoiding eating undercooked seafood, the CDC said.
Lee said that 185 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 and 15 people died from complications linked to the disease last week.
Seventy-nine percent of those hospitalized and 90 percent of those who died were aged 65 or older, she added.
Since Sept. 26 last year, when the XBB.1.5-adapted COVID-19 vaccine became available, more than 95 percent of people who have been hospitalized or died from the disease had not received the updated vaccine, so the CDC encourages groups at high risk of severe COVID-19 to get vaccinated, Tseng said.
While seasonal flu activity has slowed, 32 severe cases and five deaths were reported last week, including a 10-year-old boy, Lee said.
CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said the boy was not vaccinated and did not have underlying medical conditions.
He was rushed to a hospital with a severe fever, a sore throat, muscle pain, altered consciousness and vomiting, Lin said, adding that he tested positive for influenza A.
The boy was also diagnosed with abnormal liver and kidney functions and pneumonia, and acute necrotizing encephalopathy, Lin said.
He was put in an intensive care ward, but died of severe shock and myocarditis on the second day of hospitalization, Lin added.
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