In the US, preparing for an outbreak of mysterious polio, paralyzing children - ForumDaily
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In the US, preparing for the outbreak of mysterious polio, paralyzing children

In 2018, a sad record was recorded in the United States: 186 cases of acute flaccid myelitis among children. This disease resembles polio, causes paralysis and has no cure. Doctors say that by 2020 the number of cases will decrease, but then we can expect a new outbreak - larger and more dangerous than the previous one.

Фото: Depositphotos

Doctors still do not know why this happens: an infection affects the spinal cord and causes temporary (and sometimes permanent) paralysis. Children suffer predominantly. The number of cases reaches a peak, and then gradually decreases. Outbreaks occur in waves every two years, each time their intensity increases, writes The Daily Mail.

The first known outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis in the United States was recorded in 2014, with 120 cases. In 2016, the disease returned and affected 149 people. And two years later, already in 2018, acute flaccid myelitis reached its peak - 186 confirmed cases per year.

Each subsequent outbreak, according to doctors and scientists, is worse than the previous one. But judging by the trend, now we can expect about 14-month lull. During this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are determined to do everything possible to solve the mystery of the strange disease.

The CDC has assembled a dedicated expert group to work on this issue. It includes parents, neurologists, epidemiologists who study the nature of the disease, virologists and pathologists who are focused on finding possible infectious pathogens, medical specialists in immunity, as well as experts studying genetic and natural risk factors.

Despite close attention to the disease, today this target group, like world medicine in general, has little knowledge of acute flaccid myelitis and its long-term effects.

The first cases of the disease were recorded in California in the 2012 year in several children aged about ten years. In 2014, the disease spread, then it was first called an outbreak: in the period from August to December, 34 cases were detected in 120 states. Then, as lightning as it appeared, the disease disappeared.

As in the first single cases of 2012 of the year, so in 2014, the doctors were able to install one common detail. Both outbreaks coincided with a viral respiratory infection caused by the same microorganism, which was labeled as EV-D68. True, this discovery was somewhat dead-end.

Although about 90% of people with acute flaccid myelitis recently had a cold with a respiratory system, traces of EV-D68 and other enteroviruses were found in the cerebrospinal fluid only in 4 from 512 people with a confirmed disease starting at 2014. The remaining cases remained unexplained.

The vast majority of those affected by the disease are young children. The disease resembles polio and begins with weakness and loss of muscle control in one limb, which becomes paralyzed. Paralysis then spreads throughout the body. In rare cases, the disease can shut down the respiratory system, making it life-threatening.

At first glance, what underlies the development of acute flaccid myelitis should affect the spinal cord, since paralysis is the main symptom. However, cerebrospinal fluid tests in children with acute flaccid myelitis often did not give suspicious results.

While waiting for 2020, scientists hope to determine which differences in genetic features and environmental factors make some children susceptible to the disease and others protected before it. They also study whether a pathogen can directly affect muscle cells or cause an autoimmune response.

Experts plan to conduct research that will help us understand how biennial cycles of the disease can “fuel” the nature of its course and why each subsequent outbreak is worse than the previous one.

Despite all of the above, one can only guess and predict for now - acute flaccid myelitis continues to be a poorly understood disease.

"It's impossible to say whether we'll get one real answer... because this is a complex public health trial," says Dr. Thomas Clark, a CDC epidemiologist.

Parents can only hope for the best.

“Until we fully understand what causes acute flaccid myelitis, we cannot protect people from it,” the doctor says.

What is acute flaccid myelitis

The term "myelitis" means inflammation of the spinal cord. Transverse myelitis is the name of a broad group of neurological diseases that cause inflammation of the brain across its entire width (transversely), destroying the fatty substance that protects nerve cells. As a result, paralysis may develop.

  • Acute flaccid myelitis is an uncommon subtype of transverse myelitis. It all starts with the same inflammation of the spinal cord, but the symptoms are different and the disease develops differently.
  • The main difference is that the muscles of patients with acute flaccid myelitis weaken and become really sluggish, whereas patients with common transverse myelitis, on the contrary, have hard, rigid muscles.
  • Most patients with acute flaccid myelitis have difficulty moving their limbs, face, tongue, and eyes. As a rule, they begin to lose control over one limb, and sometimes over the whole body, although many retain control over their sensory, intestinal and bladder functions.
  • Unlike transverse myelitis, which has been studied and fixed for many years, doctors still do not know why and how acute flaccid myelitis appears.

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