Enterovirus D68 disease and molecular epidemiology in Australia

Abstract

Background: Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) has received considerable recent attention as a cause of widespread respiratory illness. Neurological syndromes such as acute flaccid paralysis following EV-D68 infection have also been reported in a small number of cases. Objectives: To summarize the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of laboratory confirmed EV-D68 cases in Australia. Study design: We combined EV-D68 data acquired through laboratory surveillance in Western Australia with cases from national enterovirus surveillance and regional acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. Clinical data was obtained for EV-D68 cases and capsid protein sequences were used for phylogenetic analysis..