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Local Hospitals Prepare For Potential Spread Of Enterovirus

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Kids across the country are coming down with the potentially deadly enterovirus that's hospitalized children across the Midwest. It starts as the common cold but can quickly turn serious. The question is: will the virus move into Maryland and are local hospitals prepared.

Rick Ritter has the details.

The CDC confirmed the virus is now in New Jersey. Local doctors say it's not a matter of if the virus is coming to Maryland---it's when.

From the playground to the classroom, Chicago to Denver. A potentially deadly virus quickly approaches Maryland.

"I remember thinking I was going to die," said one child in Denver.

Enterovirus D68 starts as the common cold but can turn serious for children who have trouble breathing.

"He was white as a ghost; his lips were blue," said the mother of a Denver child who had it.

That's when kids go to the ER---exactly what Dr. Melissa Sparrow and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center are prepared for.

"There are no antibiotics for this virus. They're not going to help. It's really just supportive care," Sparrow said.

Like helping children breathe through masks and ventilators or with medication.

Dr. Sparrow says it's only a matter of time.

"There's no doubt it's going to come," she said.

Doctors say it's possible some children already had the virus but parents may not have even known.

"We don't even know it because it caused the common cold symptoms," said Dr. Ashanti.

But when it does arrive, they'll be ready.

"You need to take it seriously because this can be a bad infection," Sparrow said> "I would not worry overly; this isn't anything we can't get through as a community."

There have been no identified cases in Maryland yet.

Officials say before New Jersey, there were 130 lab-confirmed cases in 12 states. No children have died from the virus.

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