Respiratory Virus Hits Kids in Midwest

A common respiratory virus has sent hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri, with clusters of cases also reported in Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. One Kansas City hospital reported receiving 30 children a day with enteroviruses, which are fairly common and produce severe cold-like symptoms. However, 15 percent of the hospital’s cases have to be treated in the intensive care unit. The unusually high number of hospitalizations for the respiratory virus is “just the tip of the iceberg in terms of severe cases,” said Mark Pallansch, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Viral Disease. “We’re in the middle of looking into this. We don’t have all the answers yet.”