3 More Kids Have Developed a Rare, Polio-Like Illness —and Health Officials Don’t Know Why

Three more children have come down with a polio-like nervous system disorder that can cause paralysis, fueling an ongoing investigation into an outbreak of the rare disease. Three children are being treated for suspected cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, ABC News reports. The new patients join a cluster of cases in Minnesota and another in Colorado. As of September 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had this year recorded 38 confirmed cases of the severe condition, which typically affects kids and can result in muscle weakness or paralysis, respiratory failure and even death. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has since mid-September received a half-dozen reports of children with AFM, according to a statement. All of the Minnesota patients are younger than 10, and cases have been reported in northeastern and central parts of the state, as well as the Twin Cities area. “That is definitely more than would be expected,” says Kris Ehresmann, director of the infectious disease division at MDH. “To have six cases is really a striking departure from the norm.” Indeed, AFM is exceedingly rare: The CDC estimates that fewer than one in a million people in the U.S. get it each year, though it has been on the rise since a 2014 outbreak, sparking a CDC investigation. Minnesota typically sees a case or less per year, according to the MDH statement; even in 2014, only three cases were r...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Minnesota onetime Source Type: news