Ask the Expert: What is an Enterovirus and How Can I Protect My Child?

A pediatrician explains what you need to know about enterovirus, including symptoms and strains to look out for, and how to protect your kids and family from enterovirus 68, coxsackievirus, and other strains this winter.

Pediatrician, mom, and American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman Tanya Altmann, M.D., explains what parents need to know about enteroviruses and how to combat them.

What is an enterovirus?

Parents should not freak out when they hear the word enterovirus, because they are very common. We see 10 to 15 million enterovirus infections in the United States every year. There are a lot of different strands of the virus. Each strand has a different number and, sometimes, even different subtypes within each number.

Most of us catch enterovirus every winter, but it’s usually a mild cold. Some of these viruses cause no symptoms, some cause common cold, and some cause more serious infections, breathing problems, or neurological problems like we saw last year with the Polio type virus.

But it is still just a virus and it will usually go away on its own.

Is an enterovirus dangerous?

It’s rarely dangerous. Typically symptoms will get worse for three or four days and then start getting better. But if the fever is lasting for more than three or four days, if the symptoms aren’t improving by the end of the week, if your child is not drinking fluids and is really looking sick, then you should really see your pediatrician.

How does an enterovirus spread?

It’s important to know that enterovirus is spread through droplets, so it’s not something that’s going to fly across the room. Even if you’re three feet away from someone and they cough or sneeze, you’re not going to get it as long as you and your child take the right steps to keep healthy by washing your hands and disinfecting surfaces that are commonly touched.

The most important thing to talk about it is how to keep your kids healthy. Kids touch tables, they touch doorknobs, they touch each other, and then they touch their eyes, nose, or mouth. That’s how the germs get into their body. You want to teach your children to wash their hands, to cough into their elbows, and you want to make sure you keep your kids home when they’re sick to prevent your family sharing germs with everybody else out there.