WBC Count Prevents Unnecessary Antibiotics for Enterovirus

Interestingly, in that study we also found that in more than half of the families, there was more than one individual with NPEV illness that was often similar but sometimes had a different clinical presentation. For example, one child might have classic hand-foot-mouth while another just has upper respiratory symptoms or gastrointestinal manifestations. This creates a confusing picture for the family because it is not intuitive to attribute different clinical presentations to the same viral etiology and, as a consequence, medical care may be sought more often.

We also found that 20% of the mothers caught the illness from the child, compared with fewer than 10% of the fathers. Luckily, the mother’s illness was usually less severe.

Dr. Pichichero, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases, is director of the Rochester (N.Y.) General Research Institute. He is also a pediatrician at Legacy Pediatrics in Rochester. Dr. Pichichero’s institution received a research grant in 2008 from Hemacue, and he has served as a paid consultant to testify before the FDA in 2009 for Hemacue. He said he has no other conflicts to declare.