U.S. health officials alarmed by paralyzing illness in kids

  • 📰 CTVNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 63 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 99%

Health Health Headlines News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

228 cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, were confirmed in the U.S. last year. The rare, mysterious and sometimes deadly paralyzing illness is beginning to alarm public health officials because it is striking more and more children.

Braden Scott gives a thumbs up as he pauses while practicing on the piano in Tomball, Texas on Friday, March 29, 2019. Braden was diagnosed with the mysterious syndrome called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, in 2016 and was paralyzed almost completely. But since then he has recovered much of his muscle function. His parents believe a lot of it has to do with thousands of hours of physical therapy.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it may bear similarities to polio, which smouldered among humans for centuries before it exploded into fearsome epidemics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Scientists suspect the illness is being caused chiefly by a certain virus that was identified more than 55 years ago and may have mutated to become more dangerous. But they have yet to prove that.

Wilcox, Joey's father, said his son made huge improvements that way. Joey can run and use his arms. Still, muscle tone is weak in his right leg and shoulder, and he still has left-side facial paralysis. "He can't completely smile," his dad said.Katie Bustamante's son Alex developed AFM in 2016. The suburban Sacramento, California, mother realized something was wrong when she asked the boy, then 5, why he wasn't eating his yogurt.

Then, in what may have been one of the first signs of the AFM waves to come, a 5-year-old boy in New Hampshire died in 2008 after developing neck tenderness and fever, then weakened arms and deadened legs. The boy had EVD-68, and in a report published in an obscure medical journal, researchers attributed his death to the virus.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Each kid gets 15 vaccines... 😮

IT’S ALL THE VACCINES

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 1. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Health officials take action after teen dies of meningococcal infectionMontreal's public health agency has administered antibiotics to over 100 people who were in close contact with a young woman who died of a meningococcal infection last Saturday.
Source: CTVNews - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Health officials take action after Montreal teen dies of meningococcal infectionAntibiotics have been administered to over 100 people in close contact with a young woman who died of meningitis last Saturday
Source: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Read more »