Health officials are assessing whether the respiratory enterovirus D68 is linked to neurological symptoms, including muscle weakness, in four young patients in Hamilton, Ont.
One of the four patients tested positive for the virus, officials at McMaster Children’s Hospital said Thursday in a news release.
Officials have yet to pin down the cause of the muscle weakness and so are conducting further testing, Dr. Lennox Huang, the hospital’s chief of pediatrics, said in the statement.
Three cases are also being investigated in Toronto.
The symptoms are similar to those that have been reported in parts of Canada and the United States. Since August, the virus has led to patients being hospitalized in both countries. Public health officials on both sides of the border are investigating potential links between polio-like symptoms and EV-D68 infections.
Dr. Brandon Meaney, head of the hospital’s pediatric neurology unit, said in a statement that the sudden onset of muscle weakness or partial paralysis “is very rare in children and, whenever symptoms appear, it’s important to seek immediate medical care.”
Parents should take their child to a doctor “right away” if he or she is unable to walk, unable to move limbs, or is having trouble breathing, Meaney said.
“This is not common fatigue or body ache that we’re referring to,” Meaney said. “It’s much more serious than that.”
Since Aug. 28, the Hamilton region has confirmed 139 cases of enterovirus D68 via laboratory testing.
However, the number of cases across the region has already peaked and is now on the decline, according to Dr. Marek Smieja, head of the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program.
“Our numbers last week were down by half compared to the week before,” Smieja told CTV News Channel from Hamilton. “So we expect a small number to continue for the next probably one month.”
Despite this, muscle weakness that patients are reporting could persist, he said, noting that cases in California from more than a year ago suggest the symptoms improved somewhat but did not disappear completely.
Enterovirus D68 usually causes symptoms like runny nose and fever, but in extreme cases, it’s been known to cause serious respiratory problems in children. More recently, doctors are probing sporadic cases of paralysis among EV-D68 patients.
Meanwhile, officials in Manitoba announced Thursday that they have confirmed three cases of the virus, the first for the province this year.
The cases are not unexpected, given that the presence of the virus in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, said Dr. Michael Routledge, Manitoba’s chief public health officer.
“Just to reassure Manitobans, this virus is similar to many other viruses that circulate every year, and often circulate in the fall time,” Routledge told reporters in Winnipeg Thursday afternoon.
“So it’s coming at the time of year when we expect to see it.”
All three patients have been discharged from hospital, he said, and none suffered serious neurological symptoms.
The vast majority of patients who contract the virus will either be asymptomatic or suffer only mild illness, Routledge said. However, a “small percentage” of patients will develop more severe symptoms.
