The Obama administration is allowing emergency use of unapproved drugs and diagnostic tests to combat a highly contagious respiratory virus that has infected more than 1,000 people.
The administration announcement Friday notes that the nation is on the cusp of a potential “public health emergency” due to enterovirus-D68, which causes severe respiratory illnesses in mostly children and teens. The virus has infected 1,153 people across the country and killed 14 people as of Jan. 15, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Almost all the confirmed cases were among children, many of whom had asthma or a history of wheezing,” the CDC said last month. “There were likely millions of mild [enterovirus] infections for which people did not seek medical treatment and/or got tested.”
The designation allows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to clear use of unapproved drugs or other medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat or prevent serious diseases that have no adequate approved treatment, according to the agency’s website. The FDA used the same emergency authority to allow Ebola patients to receive experimental medical treatments.
There are no approved treatments for the enterovirus. More diagnostic tests could also be helpful. While hospitals and doctors can test to see if a patient has an enterovirus, they can’t test to determine which type. Enterovirus-D68 is part of more than 100 nonpolio enteroviruses.
CDC said it has been using a new, faster lab test to detect the enterovirus since October.
The virus likely spreads from person to person when an infected person coughs, sneezes or touches a surface then touched by others, the agency said. Mild symptoms may include common ailments like a fever, runny nose or cough, while severe symptoms include wheezing and difficulty breathing.
