Since April 2016, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom (Wales) have reported severe enterovirus infections associated with a variety of different strains. This rapid risk assessment considers the risk for EU/EEA countries related to severe enterovirus infections.
ECDC has published a rapid risk assessment due to a localised outbreak of neurological symptoms associated with enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) in Catalonia, Spain.
Most EV infections, including EV-A71, result in asymptomatic infection. Most symptomatic EV-A71 infections manifest as a self-limiting hand, foot and mouth disease and only a very small proportion of patients develop severe and life-threatening disease. The current outbreak is notable in terms of its magnitude and the severity of symptoms of the reported cases.
In November, France and the United Kingdom both reported sporadic cases of neurological disease involving enterovirus 68 (EV-D68) detection. As a result, ECDC has updated its rapid risk assessment on EV-D68, first triggered by reports from North America. To date, European acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)/enhanced enterovirus surveillance has not detected unusual clusters or unexpected trends.