United States have seen more cases of acute flaccid myelitis in 2018 than ever



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Intensive efforts are underway to understand and prevent Acute Flaccid Myelitis (ADM) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while the organization is pushing doctors to report symptoms in advance, according to his new report on vital signs.

Why it's important: Doctors continue to search for the cause of the severe neurological syndrome after the largest outbreak in 2018 – 233 patients in 41 states reported symptoms that often included limb weakness or paralysis. The CDC has expressed frustration with the determination of the source of the disease, some, but not all, of patients with signs of enterovirus, which spread through the nervous system, in their bodies.

The last: A preliminary report published recently in Biorxiv reviewed 100 children, including 42 with AFM and 58 with other neurological disorders, using an experimental genomic test of CRIPSR-Cas9 enhanced cerebrospinal fluid to search for viral evidence enterovirus infection. Biorxiv is not evaluated by peers.

  • Although it is not yet definitive, the study found higher rates of anti-EV-A71 and EV-D68 antibodies in children with AFM than in those with severe pain. other neurological disorders.
  • The CDC has excluded polio as the AFM responsible for enterovirus.

Details:The CDC estimates that fewer than one to two children in a million in the United States will have AFM each year. Based on the 2018 study:

  • The average age of AFM patients was 5 years.
  • 98% were hospitalized.
  • 27% needed machines to help them breathe.
  • 11 cases in 8 different states have been confirmed so far in 2019.

The bottom line: The disease tends to grow from late summer to autumn. If she follows her spiking story every two years, this year should show a smaller number of cases. The devastating disease currently affects a small number of people each year, but researchers fear that it will eventually become more prevalent.

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