3-year-old Jacksonville girl found to have polio-like disease; CDC does not have cure

A 3-year-old girl was admitted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville for a polio-like disease that federal health authorities confirmed had reached 386 cases through Tuesday, mainly affecting children.

Dr. Mobeen Rathore, chief of infectious disease and immunology at Wolfson, said in a statement that the child, who was not identified, was admitted to the hospital with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). It’s the first such case at the hospital.

AFM affects the nervous system, specifically the spinal cord, causing arms and legs to suddenly grow weak, sometimes leading to paralysis, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

The condition is not new, but the CDC said it saw an increase in cases beginning in 2014. The agency does not know what causes the mystery disease, whose symptoms include drooping eyelids, facial weakness, slurred speech and in severe cases, respiratory failure.

The disease primarily affects children. The average age of the children is about 4, and 90 percent of the cases involve children 18 and younger, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told NPR in a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday.

One child has died from the condition.

“There is a lot we don’t know about AFM,” Messonnier told NPR in a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday. “I am frustrated that despite all of our efforts, we haven’t been able to identify the cause of this mystery illness.”

While the virus has similarities with polio, Messonnier stressed that polio was not the cause of the disease. Other possible causes, the CDC says, could be the West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, and non-polio enteroviruses, which can develop into a serious condition for infants and those with compromised immune systems.

The condition is rare — fewer than 1 in a million people in the United States get AFM in a given year, the CDC says

AFM first jumped onto the CDC radar in 2014, with 120 cases within a five-month span in 34 states. Then in 2016, it peaked again with 149 cases in 39 states.

In 2018, the number of cases nearly doubled over last year, with 62 children in 22 states confirmed by the CDC. Minnesota has seen seven cases in children this year alone.

By Tuesday, the total number of cases had reached 386, the CDC said.

Rathore, the Jacksonville specialist, said he was not shocked at seeing a case this year.

“We see it peaking every two years,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

The girl is in stable condition, said Wolfson spokeswoman Vikki Mioduszewsk.

The CDC recommends that parents make sure their children are vaccinated, wash their hands regularly and use mosquito repellent when outdoors.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 7:15 PM.