Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients infected with enterovirus D68, France, July to December 2014

Isabelle Schuffenecker (1, 2) , Audrey Mirand (3) , Laurence Josset (4, 1) , Cécile Henquell (5) , Denise Hecquet (6) , Léa Pilorgé (7) , Joelle Petitjean-Lecherbonnier (8) , Catherine Manoha (9) , Jérôme Legoff (10) , Claire Deback (11) , Sylvie Pillet (12) , Quentin Lepiller (13) , Jean Michel Mansuy (14) , Stéphanie Marque-Juillet (15) , Denise Antona (16) , Hélène Peigue-Lafeuille (3) , Bruno Lina (12, 1)

1 VirPath - Virologie et Pathologie Humaine
2 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
3 LMGE - Laboratoire Microorganismes : Génome et Environnement
4 Laboratoire de Virologie Centre de Biologie et de Pathologie Est
5 CHU Clermont-Ferrand
6 CHU Amiens-Picardie
7 CHU - BREST - Hôpital de la Cavale Blanche - CHRU Brest
8 Laboratoire de Virologie Humaine et Moléculaire [Caen]
9 Laboratoire de sérologie-virologie (CHU de Dijon)
10 Laboratoire de microbiologie
11 Service de Virologie
12 CHU ST-E - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Etienne [CHU Saint-Etienne]
13 API - Agents pathogènes et inflammation - UFC (EA 4266)
14 CHU Toulouse - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse
15 CHV - Centre Hospitalier de Versailles André Mignot
16 Institut de veille sanitaire Saint Maurice

In 2014, the United States (US) experienced a nationwide outbreak of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infection with 1,152 cases reported mainly in hospitalised children with severe asthma or bronchiolitis. Following the US alert, 11 laboratories of the French enterovirus (EV) surveillance network participated in an EV-D68 survey. A total of 6,229 respiratory samples, collected from 1 July to 31 December 2014, were screened for EV-D68 resulting in 212 EV-D68-positive samples. These 212 samples corresponded to 200 EV-D68 cases. The overall EV-D68 positivity rates among respiratory samples were of 5% (184/3,645) and 1.1% (28/2,584) in hos-pitalised children and adults respectively. The maximum weekly EV-D68 positivity rates were of 16.1% for children (n = 24/149; week 43) and 2.6% for adults (n = 3/115; week 42). Of 173 children with EV-D68 infection alone, the main symptoms were asthma (n = 83; 48.0%) and bronchiolitis (n = 37; 21.4%). One child developed acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) following EV-D68-associated pneumonia. Although there was no significant increase in severe respiratory tract infections reported to the French public health authorities, 10.7% (19/177) of the EV-D68 infected children and 14.3% (3/21) of the EV-D68 infected adults were hos-pitalised in intensive care units. Phylogenetic analysis of the viral protein 1 (VP1) sequences of 179 EV-D68 cases, revealed that 117 sequences (65.4%), including that of the case of AFP, belonged to the B2 variant of clade B viruses. Continuous surveillance of EV-D68 infections is warranted and could benefit from existing influenza-like illness and EV surveillance networks.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie; Maladies infectieuses

Isabelle Schuffenecker, Audrey Mirand, Laurence Josset, Cécile Henquell, Denise Hecquet, et al.. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients infected with enterovirus D68, France, July to December 2014. Eurosurveillance, 2016, 21 (19), ⟨10.2807/1560-7917.es.2016.21.19.30226⟩. ⟨hal-01883183⟩