The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has collected samples from four patients who have recently died and tested positive for enterovirus D68. It is unclear what role the virus played in their deaths if any. In late summer and early fall the virus is very common. As a matter of fact, the CDC estimated 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 infections each year in the US alone.

Though the virus is common, the deaths still do raise concern because this year has been worse than previous years. The virus has been sending more children than usual to the hospital with severe respiratory illness and it seems to be harming most children with a history of asthma or breathing problems.

“My dad had this virus for about three weeks and it was horrible. He said that he was always tired, had a terrible headache, and stomach pain,” sophomore Evan Weisser said.

One of the four people that died was Emily Otrando, a 10-year-old from Cumberland, Rhode Island. Rhode Island’s Department of Health director Dr. Michael Fine said the girl “died from overwhelming Staphylococcus aureus sepsis.”

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that resists many antibiotics and sepsis is an illness that affects all parts of the body as a response to an infection, according to the CDC

   Fine also added that “it’s not clear what role the enterovirus had, but clearly this was a sepsis death.”

Peers that were around her are not being tested for enterovirus partly because this is an isolated case and partly because the virus is self is not uncommon and not usually more harmful than a cold.