The CDC issued a vital signs warning Tuesday as it prepares for a potential outbreak of the “polio-like” illness Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) in the fall. Since 2014, AFM has struck children in increasing numbers from August to October with peak outbreaks occurring on even-numbered years. Although doctors have linked a number of cases in the initial 2014 outbreak to enterovirus D-68, health officials have not yet been able to determine the exact cause of the illness that has caused many children to become paralyzed. Ahead of the outbreaks, the CDC issued a warning on Tuesday including information on AFM and what doctors should do if cases are suspected. Although rare, the illness is serious, doctors have warned. “Improving the understanding of AFM is a public health priority. The overall rarity of this condition and absence of a confirmatory test highlight the need for increased vigilance among providers seeing pediatric patients with acute onset of flaccid limb weakness in the late summer and fall. Ongoing national AFM surveillance will provide an important bridge between research and public health response and will be critical for the development of optimal treatment and prevention recommendations,” the CDC warned. Children often have symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, and children may later have difficulty breathing and “flaccid weakness” that develops into paralysis where they are unable to move their limbs. Although 2019 is not likely to be a peak year as previous peak outbreaks have occurred on even-number years, the CDC is preparing as August to October are when the most outbreaks are seen from year-to-year. The CDC urged that testing protocol from doctors in suspected patients is crucial to helping determine the cause of the condition and refining the definition. “Prompt recognition, early specimen collection, and reporting of all suspected cases to public health are important goals for AFM national surveillance,” the CDC said. The CDC said despite testing patients for a variety of pathogens only 3% of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) specimens yielded a result in 2018. This data suggests routine enterovirus, rhinovirus or PCR testing of CSF are “unlikely to confirm the cause of these outbreaks.” “Early recognition and specimen collection from suspected AFM patients are essential to optimizing pathogen detection and determining whether single or multiple etiologies are responsible for the recent outbreaks,” the CDC states. Dr. Benjamin Greenberg, a neurologist at the UT Southwestern and Children’s Health in Dallas, previously told the Daily News that if AFM is caused by an enterovirus like D-68, the viruses could be detected by swabs at the back of the throat because that is where they replicate — not from CSF samples or stool samples like the polio virus. “Although 44% of confirmed AFM cases in 2018 had an enterovirus or rhinovirus identified in respiratory specimens, approximately half were negative,” the C
CDC issues vital signs warning as it preps for potential outbreak of ‘polio-like’ illness AFM in fal
The CDC issued a vital signs warning Tuesday as it prepares for a potential outbreak of the “polio-like” illness Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) in the fall. Since 2014, AFM has struck children in increasing numbers from August to October with peak outbreaks occurring on even-numbered years. Although doctors have linked a number of cases in the initial 2014 outbreak to enterovirus D-68, health officials have not yet been able to determine the exact cause of the illness that has caused many children to become paralyzed. Ahead of the outbreaks, the CDC issued a warning on Tuesday including information on AFM and what doctors should do if cases are suspected. Although rare, the illness is serious, doctors have warned. “Improving the understanding of AFM is a public health priority. The overall rarity of this condition and absence of a confirmatory test highlight the need for increased vigilance among providers seeing pediatric patients with acute onset of flaccid limb weakness in the late summer and fall. Ongoing national AFM surveillance will provide an important bridge between research and public health response and will be critical for the development of optimal treatment and prevention recommendations,” the CDC warned. Children often have symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, and children may later have difficulty breathing and “flaccid weakness” that develops into paralysis where they are unable to move their limbs. Although 2019 is not likely to be a peak year as previous peak outbreaks have occurred on even-number years, the CDC is preparing as August to October are when the most outbreaks are seen from year-to-year. The CDC urged that testing protocol from doctors in suspected patients is crucial to helping determine the cause of the condition and refining the definition. “Prompt recognition, early specimen collection, and reporting of all suspected cases to public health are important goals for AFM national surveillance,” the CDC said. The CDC said despite testing patients for a variety of pathogens only 3% of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) specimens yielded a result in 2018. This data suggests routine enterovirus, rhinovirus or PCR testing of CSF are “unlikely to confirm the cause of these outbreaks.” “Early recognition and specimen collection from suspected AFM patients are essential to optimizing pathogen detection and determining whether single or multiple etiologies are responsible for the recent outbreaks,” the CDC states. Dr. Benjamin Greenberg, a neurologist at the UT Southwestern and Children’s Health in Dallas, previously told the Daily News that if AFM is caused by an enterovirus like D-68, the viruses could be detected by swabs at the back of the throat because that is where they replicate — not from CSF samples or stool samples like the polio virus. “Although 44% of confirmed AFM cases in 2018 had an enterovirus or rhinovirus identified in respiratory specimens, approximately half were negative,” the C
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