Pharmacist David Snodgraff holds up a pediatric flu vaccine on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, inside the South Bend Clinic in South Bend. (SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN)
SOUTH BEND — A serious strain of enterovirus, a respiratory illness primarily affecting children, has begun to make its appearance in the South Bend area.
Enterovirus is common, affecting between 10 million to 15 million people in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and typically manifests as a mild cold. However, this fall's strain, known as enterovirus-68, is unusually severe and is prompting serious breathing problems in some patients, according to St. Joseph County Health Officer Dr. Thomas Felger.
Indiana State Department of Health reported Monday that three cases of enterovirus have been confirmed in northern Indiana, though further testing is needed to see if these are enterovirus-68. The illness isn't on the list of those required to be reported to state and national health authorities.
Beacon Health System spokeswoman Maggie Scroope said Memorial Hospital has no confirmed cases, but a number of suspected cases of the virus. Elkhart General Hospital has one suspected juvenile case and one suspected adult case, she added.
"At Memorial Children's Hospital, we have seen a high volume of children with respiratory illnesses since Labor Day, particularly those with asthma," Scroope said. "Though we are not able to confirm at this time that it is enterovirus, they are suspected cases."
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