Enterovirus D68 Circulation: Results from the New Vaccine Surveillance Network –– United States, July–October 2017–2018
- New CDC surveillance among US children seen in emergency departments or hospitalized for acute respiratory illness (ARI) shows substantially more children tested positive for enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in the 2018 season compared with 2017. From July 1 – October 31, 2018, EV-D68 infections were detected in 358 children with ARI, compared with two during the same time period in 2017.
- EV-D68 is one of many known enteroviruses, and can cause mild to severe respiratory illness, or no symptoms at all. EV-D68 annual trends and circulation are not fully understood because testing in clinical settings has been limited and detections are not notifiable to CDC, meaning U.S. health care professionals are not required to report known or suspected cases.
- CDC recently established surveillance for EV-D68 among pediatric patients with ARI in 7 U.S. medical centers. These sites use a standard approach to test for EV-D68. Continued surveillance of EV-D68-associated acute respiratory illness over multiple years is key to understanding circulation of EV-D68 in the United States.
“Because U.S. health care professionals are not required to report cases of EV-D68 to CDC and testing is not readily available, our understanding of EV-D68 epidemiology has been limited. With the establishment of new surveillance that uses a standard approach to test for EV-D68-associated respiratory illness among children, CDC will now be able to better understand circulation of EV-D68 in the US. This can inform public health and clinical preparedness.“
– Stephanie Kujawski, PhD, MPH, EIS Class of 2018
[JPG - 875 KB]EIS officer Stephanie Kujawski (right) and colleague Joana Lively review EV-D68 surveillance data
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Stephanie Kujawski, PhD, MPH,
EIS Class of 2018
CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Division of Viral Disease
Education: BA Stanford University – 2006
MPH Columbia University – 2012
PhD Columbia University – 2018
Work Experience: Teaching Assistant, Principles of Epidemiology III, Columbia University Department of Epidemiology, New York, New York, 2017
Teaching Assistant, Epidemiologic Research in Developing Countries: From Research to Practice, Columbia University Department of Epidemiology, New York, New York 2017
Graduate Research Assistant, Professor Margaret E. Kruk, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, 2017