What is acute flaccid myelitis? A rare disease resembling polio reported in 24 states

The Texas State Department Health Services announced Tuesday that three people, two from Travis County and one from Hays County, had developed an acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). So far this year, the disease has been reported in 24 states of the country.

AFM is a rare but serious condition that can affect the nervous system, especially the spinal cord of a person, and cause stoppage of muscles and reflexes.

State officials said that as of October 16, a total of 16 people across Texas had developed the AFM, according to a report in the Statesman. In 2017, there were only five cases in the state, he added.

The CDC reported 72 cases of acute flaccid myelitis in 24 US states. In this image: A podium with the logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Global Communications Center Tom Harkin Atlanta, Georgia, October 5, 2014. Photo: Getty Images / Kevin C. Cox

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 72 cases of AFM have been confirmed in 24 states of the country so far in 2018. Children are most affected by the disease.

The agency said the disease affects an area of ​​the spinal cord called gray matter, resulting in weakening of muscles and reflexes in the body. The number of cases reported in the United States has been steadily increasing since 2014. According to CDC estimates, fewer than one in a million people in the United States will have AFM each year.

The causes of AFM are diverse, such as viruses and environmental toxins. An article in People said that some doctors thought that a virus called enterovirus D68, or EV-D68, was the main cause of the disease. But the CDC did not confirm it.

"We have not been able to find the cause of the majority of these cases of MFA," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "We do not know a lot of AFM, and I'm frustrated that, despite our best efforts, we have not been able to identify the cause of this mysterious disease."

The disease can sometimes be difficult to diagnose because similar symptoms are also present in other neurological diseases such as transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome. The symptoms of the disease are most often compared to those of poliomyelitis, but all cases of MFA have been negative for poliovirus. the CDC lists a number of symptoms to watch for, including the sudden onset of weakness of the arm or leg, as well as loss of tone and muscle reflexes, sagging / weakness of the face, drooping eyelids, difficulty in moving your eyes or difficulty swallowing or talking.

According to the CDC, the most serious symptom is respiratory failure. This happens when the muscles involved in breathing become weak. In rare cases, the processes in the body that triggered the AFM may also trigger other serious neurological complications. This could sometimes lead to death.

There is no treatment or specific treatment for the disease yet. The CDC advises people to protect themselves against polio and West Nile virus with vaccines and to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes to prevent contracting the disease.

According to the CDS, 396 cases of AFD were confirmed in the United States from August 2014 to October 2018. A graph shows that the disease has increased each consecutive year since 2014, around August. In 2014, 120 people in 34 states were diagnosed with AFM. It fell to 22 in 17 states in 2015, but again to 149 in 39 states in the United States and Washington, DC in 2016. In 2017, the number of reported cases has further been reduced to 33 in 16 states.