Читать книгу Vaccines For Dummies - Sharon Perkins - Страница 28

You’ve probably had an enterovirus case and didn’t even know it. Nine in ten cause no symptoms or just a brief fever without anything remarkable. There are over 80 different types of enteroviruses, and each type has its own footprint. Enteroviruses can cause a common cold; diarrhea; mouth blisters; pink eye; hand, foot, and mouth disease; and even nervous system infections that can lead to paralysis.

These viruses can cause a severe illness in some, a mild illness in others, and just a fever or nothing at all in still others. Enterovirus D68, just to name one, can cause a cold in some, but for some children, it can cause more severe respiratory illness and can leave lasting nerve damage that causes weakness or even paralysis.

There are a few different ways to get sick with an enterovirus:

 It often spreads when you don’t wash your hands frequently, especially after using the toilet.

 It can spread by fecal-oral transmission, when you get the tiniest amount of stool from someone else in your mouth, often by touching an infected surface and then putting your hand to your mouth.

 It can spread from having close contact, like shaking hands with someone who hasn’t washed their hands well.

 Directly touching contaminated stool, such as when changing diapers, and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth can infect you.

 Contact with fluid from blisters that form in hand, foot, and mouth disease can infect you.

 Respiratory droplets can spread enteroviruses. Coughing, sneezing, and breathing can create droplets that spread. Any contact with saliva, sputum, eye secretions, or nasal mucus can spread an enterovirus.

 It can be spread from drinking water with the virus in it, which can occur when tiny amounts of sewage contaminate drinking water, especially where resources are more limited.

There’s one type of enterovirus that’s more worrisome than the rest. Polio is an enterovirus. It causes paralysis in a small number of people who are infected. Usually one in 100 or so infected develop paralysis. Others may just have diarrhea or a fever and not the weakness we worry about. Most people are vaccinated against polio, and the disease has been almost eliminated worldwide. Only one of the three initial types is still spreading, and it’s known to be in only a few places.

Rhinoviruses are another viral species in the same family as enterovirus species, and in fact, they are all in the genera enterovirus. They are the most common cause of the cold. They cause many — up to 50 percent — of the sniffles, coughs, and sore throats that we call the common cold. They spread by droplets from coughs, sneezes, and just plain breathing. They can also spread when you touch your face after touching commonly touched items, like doorknobs or countertops.

Usually, rhinoviruses don’t cause serious infections, but we’d all rather avoid getting colds. Vaccines haven’t been able to help us, though. There are three species (A, B, and C), which include about 160 known types. This means new types keep appearing. So far, scientists haven’t been able to come up with a vaccine that creates a response to all of these.