Human enteroviruses are ubiquitous picornaviruses found throughout the world and are transmitted from person to person through fecal-oral contact and, less commonly, respiratory secretions.
Polioviruses, the prototypic enteroviruses, are the cause of paralytic poliomyelitis, a disease that has been eradicated in most high-income countries and targeted for worldwide eradication. The non-polio enteroviruses (comprising the group A and B coxsackieviruses, echoviruses, and “newer” enteroviruses) and the parechoviruses are responsible for a wide spectrum of disease in persons of all ages, although infection and illness disproportionately affect infants and young children.
More than 90 percent of infections caused by the non-polio enteroviruses are asymptomatic or result only in an undifferentiated febrile illness. When more serious disease occurs, the clinical spectrum and disease severity vary with the age, sex, and immune status of the host. Some clinical syndromes (viral meningitis and some exanthema) are caused by numerous enterovirus serotypes, while others appear limited to specific enterovirus subgroups (eg, hand, foot, and mouth disease [HFMD] with enterovirus A71 and some group A coxsackieviruses, and pleurodynia and myocarditis with the group B coxsackieviruses).
Microbiology - Virology
ENTP
For CSF samples register CNSP; for respiratory requests register IRNA
Testing is batched daily Monday-Friday at approximately 9.30am, with results available from mid-afternoon.
Add-ons can be made if an appropriate sample has already been received for other bacterial or PCR testing. Please call Virology to discuss.
Coxsackie virus
Echovirus
Enterovirus eye swab
Enterovirus faeces
Enterovirus throat swab
Hand foot and mouth
3 days
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