GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Doctors say enteroviruses are on the rise in West Michigan, leading to an increase in respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses — and in some cases, serious complications.
“Rhinovirus slash enterovirus are kind of a big family, and so it's kind of annoying, because you can't really develop immunity to all of them at once, so [one can pop up] and be in the community and just cause a lot of trouble,” said Dr. Andrew Jameson, an infectious disease expert with Trinity Health Grand Rapids. “This is a very, very, like, frustrating virus, not, not super dangerous, like, it just can really ruin your day.”
According to Jameson, hospitals are seeing an influx of recent cases.
“I was in the hospital rounding last week, and I saw more enterovirus that I've seen in years, and it was causing really, really severe respiratory infections in patients that are immunocompromised and even some healthy younger people,” he said.
He added that the virus can cause serious complications, including meningitis and pneumonia.
Symptoms can include respiratory illness as well as gastrointestinal issues.
“This is the thing that gives you the upset stomach. Sometimes you have diarrhea. It passes through the family really quickly, really well. And this is a virus that is transmitted primarily from contact,” Jameson said.
Hand sanitizer, however, won’t protect against enteroviruses.
“It will not work. And so this is when you got to go back to good old fashioned like soap and water. It needs that friction,” Jameson said. “This is really just trying to be careful with not touching your eyes, not touching your mouth, like after you have contact with those things or people.”
Jameson said symptoms can vary depending on the strain.
“The GI illness will cause kind of some fevers, body aches like diarrhea for probably two to three, four solid days,” he said. “The respiratory virus can, can kind of spike at typically day two or so. You get to feel your worst after you kind of feel it coming on day two is the worst, and then it'll slowly improve over the next week.”
He recommends contacting a primary care doctor if certain warning signs appear.
“If you're not urinating a lot, or your or your urines getting really, really dark, that can be a sign of getting dehydrated. So, that's a red flag sign for me,” Jameson said. “If you can't like talk as easily because you're short of breath, that's not good. If you can't walk as far because you're short of breath, that's also not good.”
Doctors say treatment may include Tylenol or ibuprofen, and staying hydrated is important.
They also recommend bleaching or deep cleaning bathrooms after the virus spreads through a household.
And while hand sanitizer doesn’t stop enteroviruses, Jameson says it still has an important role.
"The hand sanitizer is really good for [influenza]. It's really good for a lot of our other like viruses, but these particular ones that are spreading right now in our community, don't do it."
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
