More than 70 children complaining of respiratory virus symptoms
visited the Blessing Hospital in Quincy, southwest Illinois, during
the Labor Day weekend, they said.
Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Neisen said the hospital will not release
the status of the children.
The virus, has yet to be identified, but resembles HEV68, a
respiratory infection that broke out in nearby St. Louis and Kansas
City a week earlier, Dr. Robert Merrick, an epidemiologist at the
hospital, said in a statement.
Hannibal Regional Healthcare System in nearby Hannibal, Missouri,
which issued a similar warning to children, lists the symptoms on
its Facebook page as fever, runny nose, sneezing, cough, mouth
blisters, body and muscle aches and rash.
Last week, St. Louis Children's Hospital reported that intakes
related to the virus increased 50 percent and Children's Mercy
Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, had 300 cases of children with
the virus.
(Reporting by Mark Guarino in Chicago; Editing by Brendan O'Brien
and Sandra Maler)
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