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Acute Flaccid Myelitis Cases in Children Are Investigated in at Least 5 States

Health authorities in the United States said this week that they were investigating an unusual spike in cases of a rare condition that causes limb paralysis and severe muscle weakness in children.

At least five states — Illinois, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota and Pennsylvania — reported that they were investigating the cause or trying to confirm new cases of the illness, known as acute flaccid myelitis. Some health authorities in those states have said the condition coincides with seasonal respiratory illnesses.

A.F.M. affects the nervous system and causes, mostly in children, paralysis similar to polio. The signs include sudden weakness in the arms or legs; neck weakness or stiffness; a drooping face or eyelids; difficulty swallowing; and slurred speech, health officials say.

Since mid-September, six cases of A.F.M. in children under 10 years old have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, the agency said. Another two possible cases are pending confirmation, officials said.

The number of confirmed cases is the highest in the state since 2014, when there were three cases, the authorities said.

On Tuesday, the health authorities said three children suspected to have A.F.M. were being treated at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and officials in Colorado said they were investigating 14 cases this year.

On Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health said it had received reports of nine A.F.M. cases in people younger than 18, all from Northern Illinois. The state had previously recorded only four cases since 2015.

And in Washington State, officials said in a statement on Wednesday that they are working to confirm whether five children recently hospitalized with sudden paralysis of one or more limbs had A.F.M.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has seen an increasing number of people across the United States with the serious condition in the past four years.

Parents usually notice the child’s loss of the use of an arm or a leg. That was the case with Orville Young, a 4-year-old boy in Minnesota who lost mobility in his right arm and had difficulty sitting up and moving his legs.

He had just recovered from a cold and fever in July.

His mother, Elaine Young, told KSTP-TV that her son had received a diagnosis of A.F.M. An M.R.I. scan showed he had an abnormality in his spinal cord.

“By this point, his paralysis had already progressed to his trunk,” she said. “He was weak, he couldn’t walk. They were really worried about his breathing.”

Orville spent six days in the hospital being treated with steroids and undergoing physical therapy, she said.

From August 2014 through August 2018, the C.D.C. received reports of 362 A.F.M. cases, mostly in children, it said.

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The number of cases of acute flaccid myelitis recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the past four years.Credit...Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This year, 38 cases of A.F.M. had been confirmed in 16 states through August, its latest figures showed.

That figure does not include the six new cases in Minnesota and the possible two other cases there, the C.D.C. said in an emailed response to questions.

In a separate statement, the agency said that it was “aware of several patients in Minnesota who have clinical symptoms” consistent with A.F.M. and that it was “working closely with the Minnesota State Health Department to investigate these cases.”

A.F.M. is considered a very rare condition, with fewer than one in a million people in the United States getting the illness, the C.D.C. said.

The exact reasons that the condition appears are not known, but neurological conditions have a variety of triggers, such as viruses, environmental toxins and genetic disorders, the C.D.C. said.

In 2014, doctors believed the cases might be linked to infection with enterovirus 68, a respiratory virus, according to a New York Times article. A statement on Tuesday from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said that enterovirus 68 and another type, enterovirus 71, had been found in all but two of the state’s A.F.M. cases this year.

“There were not necessarily a lot of cases that had been noticed before” 2014, said Jayne Griffith, the Minnesota Department of Health’s senior epidemiologist.

Ms. Griffith said the cases usually come to light when parents notice acute muscle weakness or paralysis in their child and take them to a health provider. A clinical diagnosis, which was given in the state’s six new cases, involves an M.R.I. and a scan or a tap of the spine, which detects inflammation associated with A.F.M.

“There is obviously a lot of concern about it, but it is rare,” Ms. Griffith said.

Cynthia Kenyon, another Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist, said that spinal inflammation disorders could spring from viruses, other pathogens or toxins. After a diagnosis is made, health providers and investigators try to retrace the path of the illness to its source.

“From what my understanding is, if there is an external causal agent, it may be difficult to determine when the exposure to that agent occurs,” Ms. Kenyon said. “And then there is lag time until the spinal inflammation.”

Investigators are still collecting data on the two unconfirmed cases in Minnesota, which involved children under the age of 10 who displayed symptoms in the summer, Ms. Griffith said.

A.F.M. is not known to be contagious, she said.

There is no single treatment for A.F.M., but a neurologist may recommend therapy. A 2-year-old girl underwent occupational therapy and a nerve transfer operation after she lost the use of her right arm, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said last month.

The C.D.C. does not yet know the long-term effects of A.F.M. Some patients have recovered quickly, while others continue to have paralysis, it says.

In Minnesota, health officials have been fielding calls from the public and doctors about how to prevent the onset, Ms. Griffith said.

Health officials have recommended general preventive steps. They include hand-washing, mosquito repellent to try to protect against West Nile virus, and vaccinations for polio, even though there is no known link to A.F.M.

“We think that in some cases, there might be a virus or some pathogen that you are initially infected with,” Ms. Kenyon said. “Since we don’t see a clear association with all of our cases with a particular virus or pathogen, the best we can do right now is to make sure you are doing everything you can.”

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