Worrying Polio Disease Leaves more than 100 Children Paralyzed across America with Little Hope of recovery

AFM:Acute Flacid Myelitis

SYMPTOMS:Difficulty in Swallowing,Sudden weakness in Limbs,Difficulty moving the eyes,Drooping eyelids,Slurred Speech,
Respiratory failure, which happens when the muscles involved in breathing are weak.



A polio-like illness that once paralyzed more than 100 children around the countryis on the rise again.Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) affects the nervous system, specifically the spinal cord. Symptoms similar to that of a cold can escalate dramatically and leave most of a child's body paralyzed in a matter of days.Fifty people across 24 states have contracted AFM from January to August this year, the CDC reported Monday.This increase follows a similar pattern to an AFM surge that affected at least 120 children in 2014.Many still have not recovered fully today.

Braden Scott (pictured), 5, was diagnosed with AFM in July in Houston, Texas. He still needs a ventilator and has remained inthe hospital, where physical therapy is helping his motor skills

There have already been more than twice as many AFM cases this year than last year. In 2015, 21 people in the US had the disease, according to theCDC.'My concern is that we are seeing a trend now in 2016 that mirrors what we saw in 2014', Dr Teri Schreiner, from the Children'sHospital Of Colorado, toldNBC News.

Fifty people across 24 states have contracted AFM from January to August this year, the CDC reported Monday. This graph shows the AFM surge in 2014 as well as the recent increase
   Children affected by AFM typically experience paralysis on most of their bodyand need a ventilator to breathe.There is no specific treatment for AFM andpatients work with doctors on a case-by-case basis to recover the use of their limbs.Braden Scott, 5, was diagnosed with AFM in July in Houston, Texas. He still needs a ventilator and has remained in the hospital.But his parents are hopeful as the little boyhas recently started sitting up again - a skill he practices during physical therapy sessions.In August, his parents decided to teach him as much of the kindergarten curriculum as possible. Braden on Tuesday studied maths on his hospital bed.'He was a regular kid a few months ago. It seems like it was just yesterday, but at the same time, I can't really remember what his actual voice sounds like,' his mother Rachel wrote in an update last month.

She has urged Facebook users to share her son's story to teach other parents to be on the lookout for the first signs of AFM.Carter Roberts, 3, of Chesterfield, Virginia,became paralyzed from the nose down over the course of one weekend in July.He can only move one toe and the left eye of his face, as well as blink and stick his tongue out, NBC News reported.His mother Robin hopes speech therapy can help her son.'I got to hear him talk and he said just a handful of words and as a mom, it was the sweetest sound ever,' she told NBC News.'I wake up and am hopeful every day that he's going to make some progress. It's hard not a feel a little bit robbed because this happened so quickly, but it was just a virus.'McKenzie Andersen was 6 when she got the disease in 2014.'Within 12 days 'she was paralyzed from the neck down, on a ventilator to breathe for her. She was left with her left hand and her feet and toes that move,' her mother told theWashington Post.'How do you ever wrap your brain around the fact that she got a cold, and now she's a quadriplegic on a ventilator? It's a nightmare you never wake up from.'




Source: Dailymail