In general, HPeV is transmitted by the oral-fecal route causing in most cases relatively mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms [2, 8] , though conditions such as bronchiolitis [9] and severe neonatal infections [10, 11] have also been reported. HPeV1 and HPeV2 were first isolated in 1956 and classified by serotyping as enteroviruses, respectively echovirus types 22 and 23 [3, 12] . HPeV3 was first described in 2004 [6] and is associated with more severe conditions related to CNS symptoms [10, 11, 13] . Subsequently, improvements in HPeV-specific screening tools allowed a successful identification of HPeV4 and HPeV6 throughout North America, Japan and Europe [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] . Moreover, an HPeV variant originally classified as HPeV2-Connecticut was reclassified as HPeV5 [14] . Currently, sequences have become available for two novel types that were recently isolated in Pakistan and Brazil [19, 20] and in the Netherlands one more novel type was identified (HPeV14, [21] ). Unfortunately sequences of the HPeV types 9 to 13 are not available for analysis yet. Of all types, HPeV1 and HPeV3 are the most prevalent strains [11, 22] .