Epidemiology and control measures of an outbreak of neonatal echovirus 11 infections in Guangdong, China: A retrospective analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the outbreak of echovirus 11 (ECHO 11) infection in newborns at a hospital in Guangdong Province, China, and to study the effectiveness of prevention and control measures to infer the epidemiological characteristics of ECHO 11 and explore the effective measures for its prevention and control. We performed retrospective analyses of hospital records and laboratory test data. In this outbreak, ten cases of ECHO 11 infection were identified, of which nine cases were nosocomial infections. Most of the cases (90%) were severe, and three died. The onset time interval of 10 patients was 1–4 days, most of which occur in 1–2 days. There were eight (80%) males and two females (20%). The gestational age of the patients was 31 to 40 weeks (mean, 35+4 weeks; median, 35+4 weeks). The onset time was 3–26 days (average 9 days; median 8 days). The birth weights of the patients ranged from 1,650 g to 3,450 g (mean 2,385 g; median 2,250 g). We concluded that neonatal infection with ECHO 11 will lead to serious symptoms and high mortality, and is prone to outbreaks of nosocomial infection. We speculate that ECHO 11 is most likely to spread via contact transmission; however, we do not rule out the possibility of droplet transmission. Prevention and control measures can effectively prevent and control hospital enteroviral infections.