Mysterious, polio-like illness leaving some children suffering from paralysis
One child has died of “acute flaccid myelitis”, and 62 cases have been confirmed as AFM.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now reporting that there are now more than 125 confirmed or suspected cases of acute flaccid myelitis, a condition affecting children across the nation and leaving them paralyzed.
Federal health officials released the updated numbers on Tuesday, and said they still had no idea what was causing the spike in AFM cases or why kids were getting it in the first place.
“We understand that people, particularly parents, are concerned,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director for the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a teleconference call with reporters.
“There is a lot we don’t know about AFM, and I am frustrated that despite all of our efforts, we haven’t been able to identify the cause of this mystery
One child has died of the disease, and 62 of the cases have been confirmed as AFM. The cause of the illness has not yet been determined.
“There is a lot we don’t know about AFM,” Messonnier said during a teleconference for reporters. “I am frustrated that despite all of our efforts, we haven’t been able to identify the cause of this mystery illness.”
The average age of the children is about 4, she said, and 90 percent of cases the CDC has been studying since 2014 have involved patients 18 or younger.
Messonnier said scientists don’t fully understand the long-term consequences of the illness: “We know that some patients diagnosed with AFM have recovered quickly and some continue to have paralysis and require ongoing care.”
Astute readers will recall that we covered the spread of a polio-like virus among the young in 2014. This is when the condition was first recognized by CDC, and the agency has confirmed 386 cases through Oct. 16, mostly in children.
…[A] few cases have been linked to other viruses. Symptoms are similar to poliovirus, West Nile virus and adenoviruses, which makes it difficult for doctors to diagnose.
Symptoms include drooping face and eyelids, difficulty with eye movement and swallowing, and slurred speech. In severe cases, children might have trouble breathing and need a ventilator because of muscle weakness.
…There is no specific treatment for AFM, and the long-term outcomes for patients are unknown. Messonnier said she is “frustrated” that there still is so much health officials do not know about AFM.
Parents should check sick children for signs and symptoms (described by the CDC), and seek medical attention promptly should any arise.
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Comments
First isolated and identified in California in 1962; polio family of viruses. Does not appear to be a recent import.
That’s Enterovirus 68, which is one of the enteroviruses (including polio) that can cause it, but there’s also adenoviruses and the whole West Nile Virus family, plus poisoning and genetic issues.
And then there’s some cases where they don’t know what caused it.
Polio vacines only started about then.
Since then, no reports of polio.
Cut to 2018, after 8 years of Odumbo and open borders.
Maybe the CDC should spend less time and money compiling gun death statistics and more fighting, you know, diseases.
That seems to be the problem. They don’t appear to be scientists or researchers, they’re just bureaucrats, pointing with alarm at crises they’re not equipped to actually address.
It’s endemic in Honduras
That kind of implies that it is also contagious to some degree.
Illegal immigration causes epidemics.
Addicts and drunks squatting on city streets cause typhus outbreaks.
Democrat politicians cause both.
Nope. Bacteria and viruses cause epidemics. Idiocy causes the wild spread of ignorance such as this notion.
I have a 14 month old granddaughter, one of the children in Fort Worth area that got this damn disease goes to her pediatricians clinic.
There has to be some form of contagion. There are several cases in the FW area.
This is terrifying.
My cousin died of polio, one of the last in America to get the disease, and my uncle died at age 13 of polio.
My brother, sister ,and I, all had a mild form of polio at the same time. We were 2, 3,4.. my poor parents. Luckily we had the mild form. I can’t even imagine.
I remember my mother’s tears of joy when she learned there was a polio vaccination. We all three got the shot at first, and then the sugar cube.
Bless the medical researchers who strive diligently to identify and create a prevention and/or cure for these and other diseases.
Has there been any research around a potential connection to vaccination avoidance?
I didn’t notice any kind of breakdown of the victims of this particular disease, which leads me to the conclusion that there’s a distinct possibility that most of them are “immigrants”.