Poliolike Disease

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a disease that nearly resembles polio in which the disease includes cold like symptoms followed by loss of muscle control and paralysis of arms or legs. Approximately sixty-two cases have been reported around the States in about twenty-two states. Scientists have slowly, but surely narrowed down suspects in which this disease could be caused by. The enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was narrowed down to be a possible suspect. Although the evidence doesn’t completely make this assumption conclusive EV-D68 is suspected by many scientists. This enterovirus spreads through saliva and mucus and causes similar cold like symptoms and sudden loss of muscle control. Kenneth Tyler of the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine in Aurora reported that several strains of EV-D68 could cause paralysis in mice. EV-D68 seemed to attack nerve cells directly causing this loss of control. If the enterovirus is indeed causing the paralysis, scientists are still unsure exactly of why it is only doing so in few cases. Although there is no vaccine against EV-D68, a possible vaccine developed in China had shown positive results in mice.