CDC Issues Health Alert on Virus that Affects US Newborns, Infants

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health alert to inform hospitals and doctors that a virus called parechovirus that can cause severe symptoms among young infants and newborns, is “currently circulating in the United States.”

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky made note of the alert on July 12, writing on Twitter that “clinicians should consider PeV infection in infants presenting with fever, sepsis-like syndrome or signs of neurologic involvement without other known cause.”

Since May 2022, the agency said it has received reports in several states about parechovirus infections.

“Parechoviruses are a group of viruses known to cause a spectrum of disease in humans,” the CDC notice reads. “Clinicians are encouraged to include [parechovirus] in the differential diagnoses of infants presenting with fever, sepsis-like syndrome, or neurologic illness (seizures, meningitis) without another known cause and to test for [parechovirus] in children with signs and symptoms compatible” with the virus.

A couple in Connecticut, for example, told local media that their son who was born in May recently died after contracting the virus. They said that doctors saw that their son had swelling in areas of his brain before detecting parechovirus, which currently has no specific treatment.

The CDC said that to date, all parechovirus cases the agency has reviewed are type PeV-A3.

“Because there is presently no systematic surveillance for PeVs in the United States, it is not clear how the number of PeV cases reported in 2022 compares to previous seasons,“ the CDC said. ”PeV laboratory testing has become more widely available in recent years, and it is possible that increased testing has led to a higher number of PeV diagnoses compared with previous years.”

Health officials say that anyone can contract parechovirus, although young babies under the age of 3 months are more likely to suffer severe symptoms and may need to be hospitalized.

“Parechovirus may cause a mild diarrheal illness or respiratory infection. Infection with some strains can, rarely, lead to more severe blood infection (sepsis) and neurological infection (meningitis or encephalitis), particularly among young children,” according to the Children’s Health Hospital in Queensland, Australia.

Common symptoms include meningitis-like symptoms such as a headache, an inability to tolerate bright lights, and irritability. Other symptoms include a fever over 101.3 F, diarrhea, sepsis-like symptoms, respiratory problems such as shortness of breath, and lethargy or trouble feeding.

The virus is typically spread from person to person through contact with respiratory droplets such as coughing or sneezing, as well as saliva or fecal matter from an infected individual.