• Avram Levy, Jason Roberts, Jurissa Lang, Simone Tempone, Alison Kesson, Alfred Dofai, Andrew J Daley, Bruce Thorley, and David J Speers.
• PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Perth, Australia; School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Electronic address: Avram.levy@health.wa.gov.au.
• J. Clin. Virol. 2015 Aug 1; 69: 117-21.

BackgroundEnterovirus D68 (EV-D68) has received considerable recent attention as a cause of widespread respiratory illness. Neurological syndromes such as acute flaccid paralysis following EV-D68 infection have also been reported in a small number of cases.ObjectivesTo summarize the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of laboratory confirmed EV-D68 cases in Australia.Study DesignWe combined EV-D68 data acquired through laboratory surveillance in Western Australia with cases from national enterovirus surveillance and regional acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. Clinical data was obtained for EV-D68 cases and capsid protein sequences were used for phylogenetic analysis.ResultsSporadic cases of EV-D68 were recorded in Australia since 2008, with peaks in activity during 2011 and 2013. EV-D68 was primarily associated with respiratory disease, but was also detected in cerebrospinal fluid of one patient and faeces of two patients presenting with AFP.ConclusionsEV-D68 has been circulating in Western Australia and is likely to have also been present in the wider region for a number of years, causing primarily respiratory disease. Detection of EV-D68 in cerebrospinal fluid of one patient and in faeces of two AFP cases reinforces the association between EV-D68 and neurological disease.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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