Mystery illness in Calif. leaves paralysis in kids
Syndrome has left up to 25 with paralyzed limbs
Polio-like syndrome affected 25 children.
A mysterious polio-like syndrome has affected as many as 25 California children, leaving them with paralyzed limbs and little hope of recovery.
“What’s we’re seeing now is bad. The best-case scenario is complete loss of one limb, the worst is all four limbs, with respiratory insufficiency, as well. It’s like the old polio,” said Keith Van Haren, a pediatric neurologist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif.
The first known case appeared in 2012. Sofia Jarvis in Berkeley began to experience wheezing and difficulty breathing. The 2year-old spent days in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Eventually, Sofia was brought to Van Haren’s clinic, and treated with steroids and a therapy intended to reduce the severity of infections by giving the body antibodies to protect against bacteria and viruses. “None of it helped,” said Van Haren, a neurology professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
“He told us right away that the prognosis was really poor and that she’s not going to get better,” said Sofia’s mother, Jessica Tomei, 37. Today, at age 4, Sofia’s left arm is paralyzed and she has some weakness in her left leg as well as slight breathing issues.
Parents shouldn’t panic, Van Haren said. “This is really very rare.”
No cases have been reported outside of California.
“We don’t have a final case count, but it’s probably in the neighborhood of 25 cases, all in California,” Van Haren said. The median age of those stricken is 12.
“The California Department of Public Health has asked health care providers to report any polio-like cases they might identify and send specimens,” said Carol Glaser, chief of the encephalitis and special investigation section of the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento.
The children don’t have polio, but symptoms look similar. Patients lose the ability to move arms or legs, which “just dangle, like empty balloons,” Van Haren said. The muscles atrophy and the limb shrivels.
Van Haren suspects the culprit is an enterovirus, a family of viruses that includes polio but also the milder hand, foot and mouth disease, common in children.
“In the past decade, newly identified strains of enterovirus have been linked to polio-like outbreaks among children in Asia and Australia,” he said. The California cases highlight the possibility of an emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California.