(NBC News) More than a thousand kids across the country have been hospitalized with a severe respiratory virus, and now a dozen states are asking the Centers for Disease Control to help investigate.
13-year-old Will Cornejo was airlifted to a Denver, Colorado emergency room last week.
His mother says he’d had a cold, which lead to a severe asthma attack. Then he couldn’t breathe.
“He was unresponsive. He was lying on the couch and couldn’t speak to me, was turning white and had blue lips,” recalls Jennifer Cornejo.
Will, who is now recovering, is one of more than a thousand children across the country who’ve been hospitalized with enterovirus d68.
“More children are going into our critical care unit from this virus than say, any of the other respiratory viruses that we commonly see,” says Dr. Mary Anne Jackson of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
Most kids who’ve had to be hospitalized have underlying conditions, like asthma.
The virus looks a lot like the common cold, with coughing, sneezing, and wheezing. Experts say if the child has trouble breathing, that’s when you need to see a doctor.
“Some parents are going to be very anxious because their children are hospitalized, but the vast majority are going to get completely better and better rapidly,” says Dr. William Schaffner.
There’s no vaccine for the enterovirus. Doctors say good hand hygiene is the best way to avoid getting sick.
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