Global prevalence of enterovirus D68 over the last decade - a systematic review
Hirvonen, Aurora (2025)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060118887
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060118887
Tiivistelmä
The present systematic review aimed to enhance the understanding of the epidemiology of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68). It analyzed the global prevalence of EV-D68 from 2015 to 2024 and looked into the continued ability of the virus to cause severe respiratory infection and neurological manifestations.
EV-D68 is a respiratory virus which causes mild to severe respiratory disease and in rare cases a polio-like paralytic syndrome, called acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). Over the last decade, the virus has continued to assert itself as a major global public health concern. Following a pivotal EV-D68 outbreak in 2014, it was unclear whether this would remain an isolated event or whether the virus was establishing itself as an emerging pathogen. Thereafter, the virus followed a distinct every-even-year pattern until the COVID-19 pandemic which seems to have shifted the seasonal pattern of EV-D68 to yearly peaks.
Epidemiological data was extracted from 142 papers and analyzed by year and world region. Between 2015 and 2024, more than 5700 EV-D68 cases were recorded in 40 countries across all continents. Post-pandemic prevalence trends of EV-D68 remained unclear. EV-D68 was still associated with severe respiratory illness and AFP, primarily in children under the age of five, but increasingly in adults.
The findings of the review renew the importance of enhanced, multifaceted, yet harmonized surveillance beyond expected peak years. Hereon, the prime focus should become the correct testing of samples, establishment of good respiratory platforms and cultivation of strategies for prevention and treatment. Furthermore, robust international collaboration can facilitate the process, embrace under-resourced regions, and account for geographical variations. In the long term, the complex of these actions will be reflected in more reliable prevalence estimates and the ameliorated global burden of EV-D68 and associated neurological disease.
EV-D68 is a respiratory virus which causes mild to severe respiratory disease and in rare cases a polio-like paralytic syndrome, called acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). Over the last decade, the virus has continued to assert itself as a major global public health concern. Following a pivotal EV-D68 outbreak in 2014, it was unclear whether this would remain an isolated event or whether the virus was establishing itself as an emerging pathogen. Thereafter, the virus followed a distinct every-even-year pattern until the COVID-19 pandemic which seems to have shifted the seasonal pattern of EV-D68 to yearly peaks.
Epidemiological data was extracted from 142 papers and analyzed by year and world region. Between 2015 and 2024, more than 5700 EV-D68 cases were recorded in 40 countries across all continents. Post-pandemic prevalence trends of EV-D68 remained unclear. EV-D68 was still associated with severe respiratory illness and AFP, primarily in children under the age of five, but increasingly in adults.
The findings of the review renew the importance of enhanced, multifaceted, yet harmonized surveillance beyond expected peak years. Hereon, the prime focus should become the correct testing of samples, establishment of good respiratory platforms and cultivation of strategies for prevention and treatment. Furthermore, robust international collaboration can facilitate the process, embrace under-resourced regions, and account for geographical variations. In the long term, the complex of these actions will be reflected in more reliable prevalence estimates and the ameliorated global burden of EV-D68 and associated neurological disease.