Schreiner, a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital in Denver. Since August, 13 cases have been seen in Colorado, according to Teri L. Even so, as cases of severe respiratory illnesses associated with the virus have waned with the advent of colder weather, so too have the cases of acute flaccid myelitis. That link, however, has yet to be proved. Neurologists suspect the current outbreak to be a rare but grim effect of the far larger epidemic of enterovirus 68 infections that occurred across North America this summer. That puts the numbers real high, real fast.” “I was on a conference call a few weeks ago with about 50 doctors from medical centers across North America,” Van Haren said. Some doctors at the meeting said they fear the number of cases could be much higher than 100. 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.īut, he said, “The bottom line is that right now we don’t have an effective treatment.” 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. Some of the children have had mild to moderate recovery of strength, doctors at the meeting said. There are probably in reality over a hundred cases nationwide. “I would concur with the folks in attendance that the true number of cases is larger than the 51 we have identified so far. Sejvar, the neuroepidemiologist at the CDC who is tracking the outbreak, in a telephone interview from Atlanta. “That’s pretty remarkable,” said James J. Dozens kept their hands up when asked if they had seen two, three, five or more. 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. 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. Myelitis is an inflammation of the gray matter-the nerve cells-in the spinal cord, showing up as a bright spot on an MRI. 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. “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. #POLIO LIKE DISEASE HEALTHNUT HOW TO#“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. 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. 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. #POLIO LIKE DISEASE HEALTHNUT FULL#COLUMBUS, Ohio-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.
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