ECCHO 11 virus: how caught?

[Seaoat]

Two years ago, my six-week-old son died of what was ultimately diagnosed
as ECCHO 11 (courtesy of CDC, Atlanta).  Can anyone tell me methods of
transmission to a pregnant woman?  ECHO causes extreme liver damage and
iron storage in infants - mortality rate is 95%.  Are there other viruses
like it?  How can I avoid these in a future pregnancy?  Any literature on
the subject?  Thanks for your help. --DeDe Ross


	ECHO viruses, members of the picornavirus family, are primarily
transmitted by the fecal-oral route.  I would strongly suspect that what
is true for poliovirus transmission is equally true for ECHO viruses as
a group.  I was unaware that any ECHO virus infection has a mortality
rate of 95% and suspect that what is really meant by that is that a
patient showing disease has a high mortality rate.  Asymptomatic infections
must be more prevalent- they just go largely undetected.  Except for keeping
and practicing good personal hygiene and sanitation, there is not much
needed to avoid such infections.  The tragic death of a child from this
kind of infection must be a relatively rare event.