‘MYSTERY ILLNESS’ HITS
Polio-like disease detected in Bay State
State and national health authorities are raising the alarm about a polio-like “mystery illness” that has left dozens of children with paralysis and other symptoms in Massachusetts and 21 other states.
Two cases of the disease — acute flaccid myelitis — have been confirmed in Massachusetts with another four cases under investigation. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 62 cases this year and a total of 386 since 2014.
“We know this can be frightening for parents,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. She said the average age of AFM patients is 4.
“There is a lot we don’t know about AFM and I am frustrated that despite all of our efforts, we haven’t been able to identify the cause of this mystery illness,” Messonnier said. She said that most AFM cases occur in the late summer and fall.
There is no known cause or treatment, a state Department of Public Health advisory said. The disease is marked by a sudden onset of weakness and loss of muscle tone in the arms and legs caused by an attack on the nervous system and spinal cord.
According to yesterday’s warning issued by the CDC, the disease could be linked to environmental toxins, genetic disorders or other viruses such as West Nile.
The long-term effects of the disease are also unknown.
Messonnier said some patients diagnosed with AFM have recovered quickly while others continue to struggle with paralysis. There has been one AFM-related death, which happened in 2017.
Other symptoms of AFM include facial droop, difficulty moving the eyes, drooping eyelids, difficulty swallowing and slurred speech. The most severe symptom of AFM is respiratory failure, which can happen when the muscles needed to breathe become weak from the disease.
There were 120 cases in 2014 when the disease was first detected in the United States. The highest number of cases took place in 2016, when 149 were reported cases in 39 states.
“This is a mystery and we haven’t solved it yet, so we have to be thinking broadly,” said Messonnier, adding, “You’d think that we would finding a single agent and that’s not what we’re finding.”
So far, AFM has affected fewer than one in a million people in the United States each year.
The CDC is actively investigating and monitoring disease activity and recommends taking standard prevention measures such as hand-washing, protecting oneself from mosquito bites and staying up-todate on vaccinations.