(New York Post)
The Enterovirus-D68 virus. Doctors have suspected a mysterious paralyzing illness, acute flaccid myelitis, might be tied to the virus.
A polio-like illness that has mysteriously affected at least 500 people — sometimes causing paralysis — could spread across the US in the next few years, medical researchers fear.
The condition, known as acute flaccid myelitis, has struck in at least 46 states in the last four years. More than 90 percent of those who come down with the illness are children, according to the CDC.
Since the CDC first began researching the affliction in 2014, AFM has flared up in waves — infecting far more people in 2016 and 2018 than in 2015 and 2017.
Some researchers are now worried the disease could return with force in 2020, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The CDC has confirmed 182 cases of AFM so far this year. Outbreaks have occurred most frequently in the summer and fall.
Nancy Messonnier, director for the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, said in a conference call with reporters last month that the CDC is still unsure of the cause.
“It may be one of the viruses that we’ve already detected,” Messonnier said. “It may be a virus that we haven’t yet detected. Or it could be that the virus is kicking off another process and it’s actually triggering through an autoimmune process.” Read more