CDC Warning: Immigrant Children Could Be Spreading This New Mystery Virus In Public Schools
Photo Credit: Western Center for JournalismThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning yesterday about a mysterious polio-like virus that’s causing acute neurological illness and paralysis in children. The virus seems to be related to the nationwide epidemic of EV-D68 that we reported on during the first weeks of the outbreak.
The CDC is investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children to see if enterovirus 68 (EV-D68) might be the virus responsible for the neurological symptoms.
On Friday, The CDC issued a Health Advisory to doctors about the polio-like cases in Colorado, and said EV-D68 was detected in four of the eight sick children who were tested for the virus.
The CDC says the mysterious illness is characterized by “focal limb weakness and abnormalities of the spinal cord gray matter on MRI.” The cases, which are just now being made public, occurred between August 9 – September 17 among children aged 1-18 years old (with a median age of 10 years-old).
The nine children who have been confirmed to have this neurological illness all had fever and respiratory illness about two weeks before developing varying degrees of limb weakness. Health officials don’t think it’s polio because eight of the nine children are up to date on their polio vaccinations.
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