Enterovirus D68 infection among hospitalized children with severe acute respiratory illness in El Salvador and Panama, 2012-2013

Abstract

We assessed EV-D68 epidemiology and phylogenetics among children aged ≤9 years hospitalized with severe acute respiratory illnesses at five sites in Panama and El Salvador during 2012-2013. Respiratory specimens positive for enterovirus or rhinovirus were tested by real-time RT-PCR for EV-D68, and partial VP1 gene sequences were determined. Of 715 enrolled children, 17 from sites in both countries were EV-D68-positive and commonly had a history of asthma or wheezing. Phylogenetically, 15 of 16 sequences fell into Clade B1, and one into Clade A2. The Central American EV-D68s were closely related genetically to contemporaneous strains from North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Keywords: Central America; El Salvador; Enterovirus D68; Panama; acute respiratory illness; respiratory virus.

Figure 1

Phylogenetic tree including enterovirus D68 (EV‐D68) sequences from El Salvador and Panama. Using EV‐D68 partial viral protein 1 sequences, the evolutionary history was inferred using the neighbor‐joining method in MEGA 6.0 ¹⁶ , ¹⁷ ; contemporaneous EV‐D68 reference strains from GenBank were included in the analyses. EV‐D68s on the tree are designated by country/state or province for some/year of detection‐strain name_GenBank accession number. Solid triangles represent sequences from El Salvador (n = 9), and solid circles represent sequences from Panama (n = 7). Bootstrap values >80% are shown. The scale bar represents genetic change in base substitutions per site