MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Doctors worry that a severe respiratory disease, sweeping the Midwestern United States, affecting hundreds of children, could be heading towards New York, The Journal News reported on Wednesday.
"The way it came up so quickly is worrisome," Dr. Allen Dozor, chief of pediatric pulmonology at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center and Children’s and Women’s Physicians of Westchester was quoted as saying by the news agency.
"Viral infections frequently cause asthma exacerbations and hospitalizations and ICU [intensive care unit] care for children, particularly those with asthma. So we don't know if it's more severe, but the way it spread so rapidly should make us all anxious if it spreads here,” Dozor added.
Dozor claimed the virus with cold-like symptoms could easily make its way to New York and urges parents to take their children to a doctor or an emergency room if they experience breathing difficulties or excessive coughing.
The doctor explained that the virus is only airborne within a few feet and transmission can be significantly reduced by hand washing.
The virus has been confirmed in 10 states including Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky with many children hospitalized. The virus has been identified as Enterovirus 68, also known as HEV68, EV68, or EV-D68. It is primarily affecting children and those asthmatics, but some adults have contracted the virus as well.There have been no reported deaths related to the outbreak so far.
