Riassunto analitico
Enteroviruses (EVs) are ubiquitous non-enveloped RNA viruses which are primarily transmitted from person to person by faecal-oral and respiratory routes. They represent an important cause of morbidity in children, particularly in newborns and infants, and have a wide variety of clinical presentations, ranging from asymptomatic to severe infections, such as meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis and hepatitis. Polymerase chain reaction is more sensitive than viral culture for identification of EVs in multiple biological samples and now represents the gold-standard for the diagnosis of enteroviral infections. Treatments for these infections are mainly supportive, but antiviral agents are currently being investigated. Even though enteroviruses are highly prevalent, only few data are available on enteroviral infections occurring among children in Italy. This study aims to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of cases which have occurred in Neonatal Intensive Care and Pediatric Units at the university-teaching hospital AOU Policlinico of Modena from 2006 to 2016. The clinical records from 57 hospitalized patients who had a positive EV PCR result on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood (plasma) samples were retrospectively studied. Thirty-four of the patients were male and 23 were female with a male-to-female ratio of 1.48. The majority of these cases (41 of 57, 72%) were newborns and young infants aged 0 to 90 days. All the severe illnesses, including 2 cases of meningoencephalitis and 1 case of myocarditis were found in this age group, particularly in the first two weeks of life.
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