FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ACUTE FLACCID MYELITIS

Parents and pediatricians

should be on alert for a rare neurological condition afflicting children that can lead to long-term paralysis

and, infrequently, death, the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention warned Tuesday. While acute

flaccid myelitis has been around for years at low levels, serious outbreaks began in 2014, when 120 children in the U.S. were afflicted. Since then, it’s struck in rising numbers every other year in late summer and fall.