- About 450 children have been treated at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City
- Virus comes on as a cold before developing into respiratory distress
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing whether it is an Enterovirus D68 or EV-D68, a respiratory infection with varying symptons and levels of intensity
- There is no proper treatment or vaccine for EV-D68
- Doctors have been treating severe cases with ventilation
- Outbreaks also reported in Colorado, Illinois and Ohio
In Kansas City, Missouri, about 450 children were recently treated at one facility - Children's Mercy Hospital - with at least 60 of them admitted to intensive care.
According to CNN Health, possible outbreaks have also been reported in Colorado, Illinois and Ohio.
Children's Mercy Hospital's division director for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, said the problem was 'big' and 'unprecedented'.
Close call: The parents of Will Cornejo, 13, feared their son would not make it after he struggled to breath this week and was rushed to Rocky Mountain Hospital in Denver. He is one of hundreds of children being admitted to hospital for respiratory distress
'I've practiced for 30 years in pediatrics, and I've never seen anything quite like this,' Dr. Jackson told CNN.
'We've had to mobilize other providers, doctors, nurses. It's big. I would call it unprecedented.
'It's worse in terms of scope of critically ill children who require intensive care.'
Dr. Jackson said the problem started around when school went back on August 17 and peaked between August 21 and 30.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746531/Bizarre-lung-virus-hospitalizing-hundreds-kids-Midwest-30-children-admitted-day-Kansas-City-alone.html#ixzz3ChauA4Hp
