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Last year, health officials faced a record number of cases of rare and mysterious neurological disease that caused limb weakness and paralysis in more than 200 children across the country.
Officials from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that they were still trying to understand the disease, called Acute Flaccid Myelitis, or A.F.M. And although there have been very few cases so far this year, they urged doctors to stay on the lookout, as the disease tended to appear at the end of the year. 39, summer and early autumn.
A.F.M. often involves sudden muscle weakness in the legs or arms and may also include stiffness in the neck, drooping eyelids or facial muscles, swallowing problems and speech problems. Paralysis can look like polio.
There have been 570 registered cases since 2014, when C.D.C. began to follow the pathological state and appears to peak every two years from August to October. By 2018, there were 233 cases in 41 states, the largest epidemic reported to date, the agency reported Tuesday.
Every other year, there has been a small number of cases and 2019, with 11 cases confirmed to date, presents itself as the other years, C.D.C. the officials said. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the agency's Senior Assistant Director, cautioned parents and clinicians to be aware of possible symptoms and to report suspected cases promptly.
"We do not currently have an explanation of the trend observed every two years," she said, "and we really need to be ready to quickly detect, report and investigate each case this year and face to a bad year. this year."
Children affected by A.F.M. They were on average 5 years old and most were previously healthy, but suffered from "mild respiratory disease or fever less than a week before developing weakness of the arms or legs," he said. Dr. Schuchat.
To date, no common denominator has been found among affected children and officials said they are undertaking an intensive surveillance project with seven children's hospitals in hopes of learning more.
"Why this child and not the other child, why not the brother or sister who also had a respiratory infection where we are pretty sure that the same virus was circulating in the family?" Said Dr. Schuchat. "These are critical questions."
Dr. Tom Clark, Deputy Director of the Division of Viral Diseases at the Canadian Health Center, said that 98% of patients were hospitalized, more than half in intensive care units, and more than one quarter needed machines to treat them. help to breathe.
He said that at least 70 to 80% of the children whose cases had been followed still had limb weakness a few months after the development of A.F.M. He said that the C.D.C. was now evaluating all cases in 2018, examining the muscular condition, strength, and daily functioning of each child at different times of the year following diagnosis.
Although no proven treatment has yet been found, Dr. Clark said it would appear that "early and aggressive physical therapy and rehabilitation" can help children regain their strength and strength. to work.
And although the cause was not determined, Dr. Clark stated that traces of the virus had been found in respiratory specimens and stool and that in two cases the cerebrospinal fluid of the patients – the most powerful link with a neurological disease – was positive for an enterovirus. .
Enterovirus 68 is one of the possible culprits, he said, because there was more than A.F.M. case in years when more of this respiratory virus has been detected. "We really think that viruses play a role and enterovirus among the main suspects, "he said.
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