An outbreak of a virus that belongs to the same family that causes polio is currently linked to the increased cases of children's paralysis.
In a recent article in Journal of the American Medical Association, health experts have established a link between the appearance of enterovirus D68 and a spike of acute flaccid myelitis at least in California, which has its own surveillance established in 2012 following more than a decade of no reported cases.
Acute flaccid myelitis is also called polio-like syndrome since both share similar characteristics, including sudden weakness and/or paralysis of one or more limbs.
According to a report of the disease by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 100 children across 34 states have already been diagnosed of the illness.
It normally affects people below 21 years old, although the average age of patients is 7. Majority of them were admitted to hospitals, and a number were attached to breathing machines. More than 65% of them also showed respiratory symptoms and fever prior to neurologic problems. Their tests also displayed higher-than-normal levels of white blood cells and protein in their spinal fluid. Children were also likely to experience prolonged muscle pain that could last for more than six months.
When placed in an MRI, the results would suggest inflammation of the brain's gray matter.
In California, children were more than five times more likely to be diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis during the height of the viral outbreak. Of the 45 children tested, 15 of them showed enterovirus in their fluid and stool samples while 9 of the 15 had the enterovirus D68.
However, the experts admitted they could not blame the virus entirely since there's no trace of it in the affected children's spinal fluid. They explained that it could be because the virus wasn't in the fluid but somewhere else, it was there but already disappeared, or the cases weren't connected to the virus at all.