Urgent warning to parents as deadly baby virus on the rise in the UK and Europe
A VIRUS that can leave some babies completely paralysed is on the rise in the UK and Europe, experts warn.
In most people, the bug, known as enterovirus-11 typically causes a mild cold-like illness which lasts about a week.
However, newborns are more at risk for severe complications and even death because of their immature immune systems.
In babies, the bug can trigger sepsis and severe neurological disorders such as meningitis, encephalitis, and paralysis.
This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that at least 26 infants in Croatia, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK had been infected since 2022.
That is more than would be expected, a WHO spokesperson said.
“It is considered unusual due to the extremely rapid deterioration and associated case fatality rate amongst the affected babies,” the spokesperson told NBC news.
And while some of the 26 cases were discovered in 2022, the majority have been reported since late spring 2023.
Eight of those babies died, with most deaths reported in France following organ failure and sepsis.
In March 2023, a set of twins from the UK were diagnosed with the condition, after suffering from rapid organ failure – both later died.
“Most enteroviruses cause a very mild disease in the children that they infect,” Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, said in a briefing Wednesday.
“But in a small proportion, we see a much more significant, catastrophic disease.”
The bug is usually spread through faecal matter as it lives in the digestive system.
It comes as cases of a similar bug, enterovirus D68, were reportedly on the rise last year.
Much like enterovirus-11, enterovirus D68, can also lead to polio-like paralysis, but in young children – not just babies.
Several children in the US died after developing the neurological illness.
Enterovirus symptoms
Symptoms of mild illness may include:
- fever
- runny nose, sneezing, cough
- skin rash
- mouth blisters
- body and muscle aches
Symptoms of more serious illness include:
- viral conjunctivitis
- hand, foot, and mouth disease
- viral meningitis (infection of the covering of the spinal cord and/or brain)
- viral encephalitis (infection of the brain)
- myocarditis (infection of the heart)
- pericarditis (infection of the sac around the heart)
- acute flaccid paralysis (a sudden onset of weakness in one or more arms or legs)
- inflammatory muscle disease (slow, progressive muscle weakness)