Cases of Acute Flaccid Myelitis in Minnesota and other states

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/rare-neurological-disease-reported-in-six-minnesota-kids

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.

 

@Snow Leopard

 

Something similar happened in the Seattle area a few years back, some viral infection affecting children neurologically that was equated to polio.

 

There were 9 suspected cases in children (1 to 18) in Denver, Colorado in August/September 2014, according the Wikipedia article on acute flaccid myelitis.

By October 2014, 100+ cases had been reported across the US.

 

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.

 

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/

 

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.

 

Merged thread

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/16/health/acute-flaccid-myelitis-afm-cdc-update/index.html
Yesterday, the CDC said it's seeing dozens of cases of a polio-like illness that can cause muscle weakness or paralysis. The CDC is saying 'to be clear, this isn't polio.' But it's also struggling to understand what's causing this illness to show up in 22 states.

 

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.

 

Merged thread

https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/16/polio-like-paralysis-cases-increase/

 

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

 

merged thread

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

 

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:

[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.]

 

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...

 

Report on cases in Uk on BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46618193

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswjlb
BBC Radio, World Service, Health Check: ‘What’s behind a spike of AFM cases in US?’

 

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:

 

Indeed, that is the real question "What's keeping them from the same conclusion?"

Similar outbreaks in Japan were mostly attributed to EV-D68 (the rest of the cases were attributed to Guillain-Barré syndrome).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5850449/