Urgent warning to Brits in Spain and France over killer bug targetting kids that can trigger sepsis
A VIRUS that can leave some babies with deadly sepsis on the rise in popular tourist destinations.
In most people, the bug, known as enterovirus-11 (E11) causes a mild cold-like illness which lasts about a week.
But 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.
Septic shock is the body’s overreaction to an infection.
When the condition takes hold the body begins to damage it’s own tissues and organs, which can lead to death.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) confirmed that between July 2022 and July 27 2023, at least 21 babies had been infected.
All cases were reported in France, Croatia, Sweden, Spain and Italy.
Eight of those babies died, with most deaths reported in France following organ failure and sepsis.
The UK has not been spared from this surge in infections.
In March 2023, a set of twins from the UK were diagnosed with the condition, after suffering from rapid organ failure – both later died.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the number of cases is higher than what would be expected.
“Most enteroviruses cause a very mild disease in the children that they infect,” Dr Mike Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said in a briefing last month.
“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.
This means it’s often passed on from mother to baby during childbirth.
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)