Cases of Acute Flaccid Myelitis in Minnesota and other states

Webdog

Webdog

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/rare-neurological-disease-reported-in-six-minnesota-kids
Bring Me The News said:
Rare neurological disease reported in six Minnesota kids
Officials are investigating this "rare but potentially severe" condition.

State health officials are investigating six cases of a rare, little understood child neurological disease that have suddenly cropped up in Minnesota.

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), which is often compared to polio, has been found in half a dozen kids across the state since mid-September, according to a news release from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

The cases were reported in the Twin Cities, central Minnesota and northeastern Minnesota, and all involved children under 10 years old.

AFM affects the nervous system, causing sudden muscle weakness and other symptoms including drooping of the face or eyelids, slurred speech, and difficulty swallowing, the MDH says.

In some cases, the department notes, "it can lead to death, paralysis or other long-term health impacts."
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Acute Flaccid Myelitis has been compared to polio, and is thought to be linked to Enterovirus D68. The long-term prognosis has not been studied.
 
The question is whether they are isolated cases or part of a distinct infectious outbreak which would likely be of enteroviral origin.

I am curious to know the pattern of symptoms (unilateral vs bilateral?), but a press release doesn't reveal this.

There are long term health consequences, I really hope they include these children in a longitudinal study and give them the care they need over the long term.
 
Forbin said:
There was an article about this today in USA Today (10/08/18). In the last four years, the CDC has received 362 reports of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) cases.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/08/rare-polio-like-disorder-sickens-6-children-minnesota/1563295002/
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That is roughly 1/1,000,000.

Some literature state that the underlying numbers (due to all causes) as a hypothesis from the underlying literature are around 1/100,000 annually and numbers that are an order of magnitude lower than this may suggest reporting/recording of data issues.
 
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Merged thread

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expressed frustration and concern Tuesday about a puzzling surge in cases of polio-like paralysis, mostly in children, being reported across the country this year.

The agency said 127 cases of acute flaccid myelitis have been reported so far in 2018. To date, 62 of those cases, from 22 states, have been confirmed; investigations of the others are ongoing.

The mysterious increase in cases of AFM, as it’s called, was first spotted in the late summer and autumn of 2014. There have been cases each year since, but the numbers have been higher on alternate years. This year is one of them.

Testing of affected children has turned up a smattering of infections — some by enteroviruses, which is the broad family to which polioviruses belong, but also rhinoviruses, which cause head colds.
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https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/16/polio-like-paralysis-cases-increase/
 
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ScottTriGuy said:
I wonder if the psychobabblers will say those kids have a false illness belief? There's lots of money to be made from that narrative as we've witnessed.
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Depends on whether it develops chronic problems. Then I really hope someone slaps everyone who tries to hijack this yet again and gets them to quit this nonsense and do their freaking job.

I gotta say, without ill will, that it hurts to hear of something similar that has hundreds making huge headlines of cases while our millions of cases go completely ignored and mocked. Last year a working group of the ministry of Ontario published a report warning of the dire situation affecting approximately 1M Canadians from ME, FM and MCS (which I guess is MCAS after all?) combined. I don't think it was covered at all in the press.
 
Just wanted to leave this update that I read from today regarding AFM :

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/health/afm-cdc-update/index.html?no-st=1542143234 - "As More Cases Confirmed, CDC Says Evidence Suggets 'Viral Association' for AFM"

Some interesting notes from the article:

- "The CDC also seems to be getting closer to determining a cause of the disease. According to the new report, Clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic evidence to date suggest a viral association."

- "In the past two weeks, the agency has come under criticism from its own medical advisers for not zeroing in on a virus as a cause and instead also considering causes such as genetic disorders and environmental toxins."

- "Two weeks ago, four of the CDC's outside medical advisers on AFM expressed frustration to CNN that the agency insisted on casting its net wide, looking at genetic causes and possible environmental causes. The experts felt that the agency shouldn't waste its time on those causes, which they said were highly unlikely, and instead should focus on a virus as the most likely reason behind AFM."

- "Many of the CDC's outside medical consultants have long thought that a virus -- specifically an enterovirus-- was most likely at the root of AFM"
 
Acute Flaccid Myelitis Spreads to 90 Confirmed Cases in 27 States
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/904842
Medscape said:
The number of US children with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) continues to grow, and federal health officials still do not know what's triggering the polio-like paralysis characterized by sudden weakness or loss of muscle tone in the arms or legs.

As of November 13, there are a total of 90 confirmed cases of AFM across 27 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These 90 confirmed cases are among the total of 252 reports that CDC has received of patients under investigation for AFM.
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Medscape said:
Messonnier said most AFM cases involve children between 2 and 8 years old and about half are male. Almost all reported fever and/or respiratory illness in the 3 to 10 days before limb weakness. In almost all patients, an upper limb was involved. In about half, only an upper limb was involved.

"Some patients recover fully from AFM, but at least half of the patients don't recover and have really serious sequelae" and it's unclear why, she noted.
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Medscape said:
The CDC has increased its network of neurologists to assist with and confirm AFM cases. The agency has also established a task force of experts in multiple disciplines to develop a comprehensive research agenda to further understand why AFM affects some children and what triggers it.

"CDC is a science-driven agency. Right now, the science doesn't give us an answer," said Messonnier.

Later this week, the CDC plans to post updated considerations for clinical management of AFM that reflect the experience of clinicians treating AFM cases.

"Unfortunately, because we don't yet know the cause of all AFM cases, these considerations are not as specific as we would like," said Messonnier. "There are currently no targeted therapies or interventions with enough evidence to endorse or discourage their use. We recommend that clinicians expedite neurology and infectious disease consultations to discuss treatment and management considerations," she advised.
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merged thread

https://www.theguardian.com/society...dren-paralysis-illness?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Mikell Sheehan thought her seven-year-old daughter, Bailey, had a terrible cold. But eight days and eight doctor’s visits later, Bailey was paralyzed on her right side, in what would turn out to be one the first surges of a syndrome called acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) in 2014.

Since then, 500 children across the United States have fallen ill with the little-understood paralyzing disease, with upticks happening every other year. In 2018, 158 cases were diagnosed, the largest number to date.
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It seems odd that AFM is peaking every other year (at least since 2014). When I searched for "biennial virus," the only two that seemed to show up were "Respiratory Syncytial Virus" and "Parainfluenza Virus," both of which are human respiratory viruses.

It seems they think AFM may be caused by an enterovirus (a gut virus).

This LA Times story says:
Some patients diagnosed with AFM were found to have enterovirus D68, a cousin of poliovirus, in their systems. CDC officials have not confirmed that enterovirus D68 causes AFM. They say they are investigating several potential causes, including environmental toxins.
[bolding mine]
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[I'll admit my initial thought for a biennial explanation was some sort of widely used agricultural chemical that's only applied every other year.]

 
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Viral transmission waxes and wanes from year to year..

There was a japanese study that examined AFM cases - most were attributed to enteroviral causation and the rest were due to Guillain-Barre syndrome. It may be the latter cases which make it difficult to conclusively prove the former...
 
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/AFM-acute-flaccid-myelitis-CDC-Keith-Van-Haren-13352518.php

From a local news outlet, but it provides a good quote from Stanford’s Dr. Keith Van Haren:

Amy Graff for sfgate.com said:
While the CDC hasn't issued a definitive cause of AFM, Van Haren says the medical community is steadily converging on an association with Enterovirus D68. The virus hasn't been consistently detected in every patient with AFM, but many health professionals feel there's enough evidence to conduct a deep investigation into it as the cause.

"The primary driver doesn't seem to be particularly mysterious," says Dr. Van Haren. "The evidence is narrowing in on EV-D68 as the main driver. I think the mystery is why hasn't the CDC come to the same conclusions. What's keeping them from the same conclusion?"
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