A cluster of 23 infants in the state of Tennessee was diagnosed with a potentially severe childhood virus within a six-week span this spring, an unusually short amount of time for such a large number of cases to be recorded, doctors reported on Thursday, July 29.
According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infants aged five to three months old were infected with a type of parechovirus. This type of virus is not uncommon in kids, but it can be particularly dangerous for babies younger than six months, causing seizures, fevers, and brain inflammation.
All newborns developed a complication called parechovirus meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of the brain and brain lining. They were treated at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville. All but one of them were ultimately admitted to the hospital.
Report comes after CDC issued a nationwide health alert related to parechovirus
The CDC's report comes several weeks after the federal agency issued a nationwide health alert about an increase in cases of parechovirus meningoencephalitis. The CDC alert said that a particular strain of the parechovirus, called PeV-A3, was circulating in multiple states. The agency added in the alert that the strain is most often associated with severe illness.
Among the cases reported in Tennessee, 21 infants fully recovered from the virus, but one baby was left with lasting seizures. Another infant appears to have developed hearing loss, according to NBC News.
Dr. Ritu Banerjee, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and the author of the new report, said that what was surprising to them, and why they put this report together, is that they saw a higher than usual number of babies with this infection than they have seen in prior years.
Banerjee said 19 such cases were diagnosed at the children's hospital over five months back in 2018, the first year testing for the parechovirus was available. Only seven cases were diagnosed from 2019 through 2021.
Uptick in parechovirus cases seen in the U.S.
The findings from Tennessee's health department and doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday. Fever, low appetite, and fussiness were the most common symptoms among babies admitted to the study.
It comes as pediatric infectious diseases doctors around the United States have been probing a potential uptick in parechovirus cases. CBS affiliate WFSB-TV reported earlier this month on a family mourning the death of a baby in Connecticut after the child suffered seizures from his infection.
Dr. Tomatis Souverbielle of Ohio's Nationwide Children's Hospital co-authored a study published last year that routinely tested infants in multiple parts of the body, including the blood and spinal fluid, looking for parechovirus. He said they had seen around 20 cases so far this year, starting mostly around June.
