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Enterovirus, Colorado: Vigilance, not panic

Dr. Noah MakovskyThis is turning out to be a scary autumn for Denver parents, with a host of viruses already showing a significant impact on young children, especially a strain known as enterovirus which might be tied to a mysterious condition causing muscle weakening and partial limb paralysis.

Making the situation even scarier are a host of unknown factors: Are the muscular effects temporary or permanent? Why are Colorado children, especially in the Denver metro area, being affected more significantly than those in other areas? What, if anything, can parents do to prevent, or protect their children against, such illnesses?

For parents harboring such understandable worries, a word of reassurance comes from Denver pediatrician Dr. Noah Makovsky: “Vigilance is important,” he told the Intermountain Jewish News this week. “Panic is something I would stay away from.”

The physician, an owner of Stapleton Pediatrics, isn’t by any means prescribing parental nonchalance, however.

“While I would not panic,” he says, “parents need to be vigilant if their kids seem to be presenting with symptoms that are out of the ordinary.”

Most children who are coming down with rhinovirus or one of the various strains of enterovirus — including enterovirus 68, the one that has experts worried and puzzled — are showing typical cold symptoms like coughing, sneezing and runny noses and can be safely treated at home with ordinary treatments for colds.

“But there’s a subset of kids that are presenting with high fevers and breathing difficulty,” Dr. Makovsky says. “Those are the kids that need immediate attention.”

When a parent should seek professional treatment for a sick child is something that cannot be precisely measured by temperature or other vital signs, the doctor says.

He suggests that parents adopt a policy of erring on the side of caution.

“We rely on parental instincts to ensure we’re not missing kids that have any significant issues,” he says, “so at any point that parents feel concerned they should at least pick up the phone and speak to somebody.

“That might result in a visit to the doctor or the emergency room, depending on the time of day. That way we can determine if it’s a typical cold or something more than that. I want parents to rely on their instincts. We’d rather see more kids and get more telephone calls to allay some fears than having a kid be seen too late.

“We want to hear from parents whenever they get the feeling that something is just not right.”

The exception to that rule applies to children who have a chronic medical condition, especially asthma which seems to have a greater susceptibility to the more dangerous effects of enterovirus.

“That is what we’ve seen with this enterovirus situation,” Dr. Makovsky says.

“Most of the kids becoming really ill have had some underlying chronic issue such as asthma. For any parents with a child who has that, I would use a lower threshold for taking a child to a physician. In this instance, you want to bring them in much quicker. We have seen some of these kids turn a corner and turn for the worse.”

There are everyday measures that parents can take to lower the chance that their children contract such viruses, or many other illnesses they may be susceptible to.

“The top two things I would think about reviewing with kids are the need to wash their hands and use anti-bacterial gel,” according to the pediatrician.”They should do that several times a day and particularly before they’re going to eat anything.

“The other thing is parents taking responsibility, if their kid is sick, about keeping their child home before dropping them off at school. In these types of situations, when we have a little greater worry about significant illnesses that can spread quickly, we want to work to decrease the transmission. I know this is not easy with most parents working, but this is one of those times when it’s worth thinking about.

“It comes down to looking at the basics of infection control and not trying to go overboard. It’s amazing how simple measures like hand washing can really protect your kids and yourself.”

Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Assistant Editor | [email protected]


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