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© Nico Hermann/WestEnd61/Rex FThe virus’ most pronounced symptoms are wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing.
The rare respiratory illness affecting children across the country has now spread to at least 19 states, with confirmed cases in California, Minnesota and New Jersey, public health officials confirmed Thursday.

This rare virus strain, known as enterovirus 68, can cause severe breathing problems. There have now been 153 confirmed cases across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it is believed that many more people have the virus and that it will appear in additional states in the near future.

Minnesota and New Jersey are just the latest places with this virus, joining a list of states that has lengthened as testing confirms cases. The other states are Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia.

Public health officials say other states are expected to join this list, as cases could likely be confirmed in other places where there have been clusters of children suffering from respiratory illnesses.

There are suspected cases in Georgia and Michigan, while health officials in Ohio and Utah have told The Post they suspect that they have cases of the virus.

Enteroviruses are very common, causing between 10 million and 15 million infections each year. Most enterovirus infections in the United States occur in the summer and fall, so these are coming at a typical time, Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters last week.

But this particular strain has not appeared very often since it was first isolated in California in 1962. The CDC expects that the number of infections will drop later in the year.

Here's more information on the virus itself and how it is treated. And here is some background on why we are only gradually learning how many states have this virus.