--- title: Rare Respiratory Illness Sickening Children Across the Country description: Officials have confirmed cases in 18 states with more expected canonical: https://time.com/3403799/respiratory-illness/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-19T15:05:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:18:14.576Z article:section: Health og:title: Rare Respiratory Illness Sickening Children Across the Country og:description: Officials have confirmed cases in 18 states with more expected og:url: https://time.com/3403799/respiratory-illness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96cfdaa8bb522d7b/6986a452e53aba34b54d481f/ap714169478574.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3728 og:image:height: 2097 og:image:alt: Enterovirus D68 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rare Respiratory Illness Sickening Children Across the Country twitter:description: Officials have confirmed cases in 18 states with more expected twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96cfdaa8bb522d7b/6986a452e53aba34b54d481f/ap714169478574.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rare Respiratory Illness Sickening Children Across the Country > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 19, 2014 3:05 PM UTC  Dr. Michael Klatte, left, pediatric infectious disease specialist and Dr. Donna Fisher, chief of infectious diseases at Baystate Children's Hospital during a news conference there on the local impact of the Enterovirus D68, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Dr. Michael Klatte, left, pediatric infectious disease specialist and Dr. Donna Fisher, chief of infectious diseases at Baystate Children's Hospital during a news conference there on the local impact of the Enterovirus D68, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Michael S. Gordon—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 19, 2014 3:05 PM UTC A rare respiratory illness has [afflicted](http://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/EV-D68-states.html) more than 150 people in over a dozen states, with more cases expected to be announced in the coming weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Enterovirus D68 is a rare strain of more common enteroviruses that afflict between 10 million and 15 million people every year. It can cause serious breathing problems and tends to infect children, who lack the developed immune systems needed to fight off the virus. The 18 states where cases of the virus have been identified so far are Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 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