Human enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was first isolated from samples obtained in California in 1962 from four children with pneumonia and bronchiolitis. The type strain isolated from one of these children has been designated the Fermon strain. Subsequently, only small numbers of EV-D68 cases were reported until the early 2000s. However, from 2008-12 outbreaks in Japan, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and the USA (Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona) have revealed EV-D68 as an emerging pathogen capable of causing severe respiratory illness. During the 2014 enterovirus/rhinovirus season in the United States, EV-D68 circulated at an unprecedented level. From August 2014 to January 2015, CDC and state public health laboratories confirmed a total of 1,153 cases of respiratory illness caused by EV-D68, with at least 14 deaths. Infected individuals were primarily children, and resided in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The CDC has also reported there were likely millions of EV-D68 infections in which the etiology was not determined.
In mid-August of 2014, hospitals in Missouri and Illinois noticed an increased number of patients with severe respiratory illness and reported the presence of EV-D68. Because efforts to define the outbreak were hampered by the lack of a test for EV-D68 that did not require nucleotide sequencing, there is a need in the art for a rapid, specific RT-PCR assay.