What are Enteroviruses?

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About Enteroviruses:

Enteroviruses are a group of viruses that can cause various infectious illnesses and are responsible for annual epidemics.
There are many kinds of enteroviruses, including coxsackieviruses, echoviruses, polioviruses, and the hepatitis A virus.
All enteroviruses are antigenically heterogeneous and have wide geographic distribution.
They can infect anyone, but are more likely to cause illnesses in people with weak immune systems, as well as infants, children, and teens who don’t have immunity against a virus yet because it’s their first exposure to it.
Illness is usually mild but has been found to affect neonates differently and sometimes more severely than older children and adults.
Transmission: There are multiple transmission routes, particularly in the neonatal period, including intrapartum by exposure to maternal blood, secretions, and/or stool, or postnatally from close contacts with infected caregivers.
Symptoms:
- Most people with an enterovirus infection don’t get sick.
- For those who do, symptoms depend on the type of enterovirus and which part of the body it affects.
- Most often a child will simply have a fever or mild cold symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, coughing, or muscle aches.
Treatment:
- There is no specific treatment for enterovirus infection.
- The focus is on easing symptoms until the infection has run its course, which usually takes only a few days.

Q1) What is a Virus?

A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism. Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox.

Source: Enterovirus infections: WHO warns against deaths in Europe; does India need to worry?