Virus linked to a polio-like disease

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Researchers at the University of Minnesota and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that a virus appears to be the cause of a polio-like illness that has caused paralyzing symptoms in some children in Minnesota last fall, including a girl hospitalized after losing any motor function.

The researchers discovered the presence of enterovirus D68 in the cerebrospinal fluid of one of six children with acute flaccid myelitis, a mysterious and sometimes deadly paralyzing disease. Minnesota had 10 of the 228 confirmed MFA cases in 2018.

Dr. Heidi Moline, a senior researcher at the university, says that the fact that they were able to identify the EV-D68 virus as a cause of paralysis in one of Minnesota's patients suggests that 39; she is probably behind other recent AFM cases.