10-Year-Old With Rare Enterovirus 68 Dies

A ten-year-old girl in Rhode Island died last week after suffering complications from the rare enterovirus 68 respiratory infection that is currently affecting children in the U.S.

Officials with the state's Health Department announced that the 10-year-old girl from Cumberland passed away last week at Hasbro Children's Hospital after suffering from both the rare virus and a staph infection.

Michael Fine, director of the Rhode Island Health Department, said it remains unclear what role the enterovirus played in the young girl's death.

"We're saying we're sure that the child died of staph aureus sepsis, which is an overwhelming bacterial infection," Fine told the Providence Journal. "We're sure of that. The virus was present in the child's body. We're not sure how much the presence of the virus contributed - or didn't contribute - to the child's death."

The girl has been identified as Emily Otrando, a fifth grader. Fine told reporters that after the 10-year-old told her parents she was having difficulty breathing, her state of health plummeted "In a very, very short period of time."

"Really by the time she got to the hospital everything fell apart […] within 24 hours," Fine said.

The Health Director is stressing that it remains uncertain if the virus had anything to do with Emily's death. "The virus could have nothing to do with it […] sometimes people who get viruses temporarily drop their [protective] white blood count and that provides a setting where bacteria then can take over."

The rare respiratory virus has been sweeping the nation and affecting children in multiple states, with some children having to be admitted to hospitals due to shortness of breath. Often, the children admitted to hospitals already suffer breathing problems with asthma.