A current outbreak of an uncommon virus strain has hospitals and care facilities taking extra precautions.
The Center of Disease control has confirmed an outbreak of Enterovirus D68 at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. Of 22 samples sent to the CDC for testing from the facility, 12 came back positive.
Rebecca Ward with the Utah Department of Health said though this strain is not as common as other strains of the virus, it is spread like other viruses—through coughing, sneezing, close contact with an infected person and touching contaminated surfaces. She said spreading the disease can be prevented by good hygiene practices.
“The same steps that you would use to protect yourself against any type of respiratory illness such as influenza or a common cold would be used here,” Ward said. “That’s simply good hand washing, especially after coming into into contact with stool or someone else who’s been infected, and avoid touching your eyes, your nose and your mouth, especially with unwashed hands.”
Hospitals and care facilities around the state are taking precautions to prevent the spread of this potent enterovirus strain. In addition to good hygienic practices, Logan Regional Hospital has initiated visitation restrictions to prevent the spread of the disease.
“If it’s close and we know it’s in Salt Lake, we being in that region, it’s likely it’s in all the regions, and so we’re taking the precautions where this might show up,” said Dr. Todd Brown, medical director at Logan regional Hospital.
Brown said young children, newborns and new mothers are especially prone to the illness, giving cause for the restrictions in areas of the hospital where these groups could come into contact with the virus.
Within the Newborn Care and Pediatric Units at Logan Regional Hospital, visitors under the age of 14 and sick visitors will not be permitted; there is also a limit of two visitors per patient room. These restrictions hold true for the Labor & Delivery and Mother & Baby units at the hospital; however, healthy siblings of patients under the age of 14 are allowed in these areas if they stay in the patient’s room.
According to Ward, there are more than 100 types of enterovirus and more than 30 states have submitted samples to the CDC to test for EV-D68.