Genomic surveillance reveals the return of the biennial circulation pattern of EV-D68 in 2024 after pandemic disruptions.
family, are small, single-stranded RNA viruses linked to a wide spectrum of diseases, including neurological conditions. Despite their prevalence, they remain understudied. EV-D68 and EV-A71 have raised global public health concerns due to outbreaks of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) and encephalomyelitis in North America and Europe. EVs exhibit high genetic variability, and viral evolution has been associated with changes in neurovirulence. Notably, EV-D68 epidemics in 2014, 2016, and 2018 coincided with spikes in AFM cases. However, AFM reports from 2019 to 2022 were low, even with a significant increase in EV-D68 infections in 2022. We developed an EV-D68 genomic surveillance workflow to investigate genotype associations with severe disease. Our previous work linked amino acid substitutions in 2018 strains to increased disease severity. This study analyzes EV-D68 evolution in 2024 and documents the return of its biennial circulation pattern following disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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