CDC confirms 594 cases of enterovirus in 43 states.

Coverage of the enterovirus outbreak continues, with all three of last night’s national news broadcasts discussing the virus for a total of nearly four-and-a-half minutes. Coverage primarily focused on the death of a four-year-old New Jersey boy, the first confirmed death from enterovirus.

ABC World News (10/6, story 8, 1:40, Muir) reported on “the first confirmed death of a child linked only to this virus. A four-year-old boy showing no symptoms of the virus are who went to sleep and never woke up.” The boy, Eli Waller, is one in a set of triplets and, while his sisters are believed to be healthy, they continue to be monitored. Additionally, a preschooler at Eli’s school has symptoms and is awaiting results from the CDC to determine if he also has the virus.

The CBS Evening News (10/6, story 4, 0:30, Pelley) reported “the CDC confirmed 594 cases in 43 states” as of today.

NBC Nightly News (10/6, story 6, 2:15, Williams) reported, “It’s a virus raising concern throughout the nation, but it’s not Ebola. It may in fact pose an even larger threat in the US.” The virus has put “hundreds of children in the hospital” with Eli Waller being the only direct death. Reporter Rehema Ellis says there is no vaccine against enterovirus but health officials are encouraging families to get a flu shot “to prevent the risks.”

USA Today (10/7, Racioppi) reports symptoms of the virus include “coughing, a runny nose, body and muscle aches and, sometimes, fever.” Moreover, “what first appears to parents to be a common cold can progress to wheezing, problems breathing and possible paralysis.” Paralysis can occur because enterovirus is “related to the virus that causes polio.”

Bloomberg News (10/6, Pettypiece) reports physicians are racing “to solve one of the most perplexing mysteries of their careers.” Ben Greenberg, a neurologist at University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, said researchers are concerned that the enterovirus could be this generation’s version of the polio virus. The CDC has yet to determine if the virus is the actual cause of the paralysis cases, since it has not been detected in all of the paralyzed patients. “And given its widespread circulation, its presence could be coincidental, the agency said last week.”

From AMA’s Morning Rounds, 10.7.2014