According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are no cases of enterovirus-D68 currently in Texas.
However, one doctor who practices in Waxahachie said she’s been seeing more patients with similar symptoms — like wheezing, coughing, and asthmatic symptoms.
Dr. Jean Strength, who is also affiliated with Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, said right now, she can only treat the symptoms, given that she doesn’t have the capability of testing her patients for the virus.
According to Strength, most patients only received testing after being admitted to the ICU, which does not happen in every case of the virus.
“I’m wondering how many children in ordinary life right now are going undiagnosed with enterovirus 68,” she said. “Because it is a virus, it is very communicable. So you don’t know how many people are going to get it until some of those end up in the ICU.”
Madelynn James, 13, of Waxahachie, is one of Strength’s patients. Her mother, Dana James, told NBC DFW that the teen started coughing and wheezing late in the week and has been treated with an inhaler.
Madelynn has not been tested for enterovirus, but Strength said she is one of the patients in her practice exhibiting potential symptoms.
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Her advice to parents is not to panic, but rather, to make sure to have children exhibiting flu-like symptoms examined by their family doctor.
“Even though we don’t know for sure that’s what it is, or if it wasn’t ... know she needs to stay down and rest so her lungs can heal,” said Dana James.
The CDC maintains the virus is not causing an epidemic and that its monitoring systems have not picked up any national increase in respiratory disease.
No child has ever been reported to have died from the virus.
The CDC reports most children will exhibit flu-like symptoms and get better on their own.
