Mysterious Childhood Paralysis Linked to a Common Cold Virus

Scientists have found evidence that a polio-like virus called EV-D68 is behind a mysterious outbreak of paralysis in children [in the USA] last year.

LAST YEAR, HUNDREDS of children across the country got sick with what looked like a common cold. Nothing to worry about: body aches, runny nose, coughing and sneezing. But then, mysteriously, a handful of those kids became paralyzed—first, just in an arm or a leg, and then spreading so far that some children needed a ventilator to breathe. The CDC reports that since August 2014, at least 115 children in 34 states have developed unexplained muscle weakness or paralysis, which they’re now calling acute flaccid myelitis. Doctors have urgently been hunting down the origin of this strange illness for over half a year, and now they think they’ve finally identified the culprit: enterovirus D68.

Source: www.wired.com

See on Scoop.it – Virology and Bioinformatics from Virology.ca