Polio-like "mystery Disease" US Inciting Fear In Parents

WASHINGTON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Oct, 2018 ) :A polio-like "mystery disease" is causing rising concern among parents in the United States, which mainly strikes children, according to reports that said that there have been 386 reported cases since August 2014.

� The disease can paralyze a child's arms and legs, while some children attacked by the disease need ventilators to breathe. The disease can also cause muscle weakness, slurred speech and difficulty moving eyes.

� The doctors in 2016 called this explained condition called acute flaccid myelitis which leave children paralyzed, the same way the decades-old polio strikes.

� According to reports, more than 100 children in the US suddenly became paralyzed in 2014 and were diagnosed with the condition that closely resembles polio. In 2016, another outbreak, the mystery disease paralyzed even more children. There have been fresh cases reported in 2018.

� According to a report, federal health officials confirmed 62 cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, in 2018. There are 65 cases that are being investigated for the same disease. Experts have been unable to determine what is causing the syndrome.

� Some parents have blamed the government health agencies for not doing enough to address the problem.

A main government agency continues to call it a mystery illness. Many doctors say that the paralysis caused by a summer virus is wrongly stoking fears among parents and preventing efforts to develop prevention strategies and treatments.

� In 2014, children started showing up in emergency rooms across the country unable to move an arm or a leg. Standard treatments didn't seem to work, leaving doctors puzzled. Tests showed that it was not polio virus. However, many tests come back positive for enterovirus D-68, which is said to be a cousin of poliovirus. A surge in d-68 outbreak in 2014 caused hike in paralysis cases.

� Federal health officials said this week that although some AFM patients had enteroviruses in their systems, many did not. CDC experts say they are considering a wide range of possible causes, including other viruses, autoimmune conditions and environmental toxins.

� As the experts were unable to say with certainty what caused the disease, experts are recommending a broad range of safety precautions, including hand washing, staying up to date on vaccination and using insect repellent to ward off mosquito bites.�