Enterovirus infections: diagnosis and treatment.

Enterovirus infections are common in both children and adults and range from benign short-lived febrile illnesses to life-threatening infections. Recent developments in nucleic acid amplification techniques now allow the rapid and sensitive diagnosis of enterovirus infections, which in turn can lead to improvements in patient management that shorten hospitalizations and reduce costs. New antiviral drugs have been developed that inhibit enterovirus replication, and early clinical trials of these compounds suggest that effective therapy for enterovirus infections is now possible.