Two more cases of Enterovirus D-68, the respiratory illness currently making parents hyper-paranoid, have been confirmed in San Francisco, bringing the city's total to three, KRON 4 reported Friday.
Details on the most recent cases were scarce, but the San Francisco Department of Public Health told KRON4 that one of the patients was suffering from paralysis in a limb and was under the age of 18. Generally, the virus affects children, and the nightly news has been making a very big deal of this for obvious reasons.
"Enterovirus D-68 usually causes mild symptoms similar to a cold or a flu," Dr.
Cora Hoover, Director of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention for the San
Francisco Department of Public Health, said in a statement. "Occasionally it can cause severe respiratory symptoms, especially in children with a history of asthma."
In its most recent press release, which didn't include the two most recent diagnosis in San Francisco, the state health department said that California has 14 known cases of the virus statewide, with five in San Diego, two in Alameda County and one each in Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Solano and Ventura counties with one additional case in Long Beach City.
Enterovirus D-68, is actually a California native, having been first identified here in 1968, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Since then the virus has made yearly rounds in the spring and fall and can be especially dangerous for children who already suffer from respiratory illnesses like asthma. The most recent version of the virus, D-68, has been circulating since 1987, but this year marks the worst outbreak by far, the CDC said.
At least 691 people in 46 states and Washington D.C. have come down with Enterovirus D-68 and the virus has been detected in samples from five patients who died, though investigations into the cause of their deaths are ongoing, according to the CDC.
Symptoms of the virus include sneezing, coughing, runny nose, body aches, wheezing and body aches. It's spread through the gross stuff that comes out of your body like saliva, snot and mucus so cover your mouth when you cough, quit spitting on the sidewalk and, for god's sake, wash your hands after you ride Muni.