Authors: Martha Powell, Future Science Group
A team at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen; AZ, USA), has identified a non-polio enterovirus – EV-D68 – as the potential cause of an outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis (AMF) in Arizona.
The Arizona outbreak involved as many as 11 patients at a Phoenix-area hospital in September 2016. Utilizing multiple genomic sequencing tests TGen identified EV-D68 among at least four children, according to the research published in mBio.
The study’s senior author, David Engelthaler (TGen), commented: “We clearly identified the presence of EV-D68 virus in the confirmed AFM patients. The results of this investigation significantly add to the growing body of evidence that AFM is associated with EV-D68 infection.”
