The Mysterious Polio Disease Affecting American Kids

More than 100 cases of a polio-like syndrome causing full or partial paralysis of the arms or legs have been seen in children across the United States in recent months, according to doctors attending the annual meeting of the Child Neurology Society.

Symptoms have ranged from mild weakness in a single arm to complete paralysis of arms, legs, and even the muscles controlling the lungs, leading in some cases to a need for surgery to insert a breathing tube, doctors said.

The outbreak, which appears to be larger and more widespread than what has largely been previously reported by medical and news organizations, has neurologists and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambling to find out what is causing these cases and how best to treat it.

“We don’t know how to treat it, and we don’t know how to prevent it,” said Keith Van Haren, a child neurologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. “It actually looks just like polio, but that term really freaks out the public-health people.”

When asked whether they had seen a complete recovery in any of their patients, only two of the doctors raised their hands.

Instead, neurologists are now calling it acute flaccid myelitis: acute because it occurs suddenly, and flaccid because the affected limb or limbs become markedly weak. 

Myelitis is an inflammation of the gray matter the nerve cells in the spinal cord, showing up as a bright spot on an MRI.

Officially, the CDC reported on Thursday that it has confirmed 51 cases of the polio-like syndrome in 19 states, all of them occurring since August 1. 

But on Wednesday evening, when the moderator of the special session asked the 250 or so child neurologists in attendance how many had seen a recent case, about one-third raised their hands. Dozens kept their hands up when asked if they had seen two, three, five or more.

“That’s pretty remarkable,” said James J. Sejvar, the neuroepidemiologist at the CDC who is tracking the outbreak, in a telephone interview from Atlanta. 

“I would concur with the folks in attendance that the true number of cases is larger than the 51 we have identified so far. There are probably in reality over a hundred cases nationwide. How much more is difficult to say.”

Some of the children have had mild to moderate recovery of strength, doctors at the meeting said. But asked whether they had seen a complete recovery in any of their patients, only two of the doctors at the meeting raised their hands.

The moderator, Max Wiznitzer, a child neurologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, said that he and other neurologists are working closely with the CDC to put together treatment guidelines.

But, he said, “The bottom line is that right now we don’t have an effective treatment.”

Some doctors at the meeting said they fear the number of cases could be much higher than 100.

“I was on a conference call a few weeks ago with about 50 doctors from medical centers across North America,” Van Haren said. “Every center had seen cases. That puts the numbers real high, real fast.” CONTINUE READING