#echovirus

Madison: ...echovirus—

Rigvir: A cancer “cure” imported from Latvia that cancer patients should avoid

This blog is based in the United States, and I’m an American. Unfortunately, this produces a difficult-to-avoid baked-in bias towards medicine as it is practiced in the US and, to a lesser extent, as it is practiced in the English-speaking world, because English is my language and I can read accounts coming out of English-speaking countries. The same bias exists with respect to pseudo-medicine,…

Echovirus ... ECHOvirus ... enteric cytopathic human orphan virus ...

It's a (+)ssRNA virus -- a member of the picornaviridae.  "Echovirus" is actually a bit of a misnomer by now.  Originally, the "orphan virus" designation meant that it wasn't associated with any known diseases.  Since its discovery in the 1950s, though, echovirus has been linked to many acute illnesses.

Generally, echovirus infections are not much to worry about.  The virus has a broad tissue tropism and can infect many cell types, often resulting in a rash or a low-grade fever.  Echovirus can be dangerous if it gets to the central nervous system, where it is one of the leading causes of aseptic meningitis.