CDC warns over virus spreading among children. It can cause muscle weakness, paralysis

Concerns have been raised after the public health agency of the United States issued a warning over the spread of a common childhood virus that can apparently cause muscle weakness or paralysis in rare cases.

In the warning issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday about enterovirus D68, it is mentioned that it commonly leads to respiratory illness among children.

CDC said that the symptoms are often mild but can become severe. The public health body also explained that the enterovirus family is large, and polio falls within it.

Notably, both EV-D68 and poliovirus can invade the nervous system and cause muscle weakness.

In August 2022, healthcare providers and hospitals in several regions of the country were about notified about the increases in hospitalisations among kids.

In some cases, there were symptoms of severe respiratory illness who also tested positive for rhinovirus (RV) and/or enterovirus (EV).

CDC's statement said that RVs and EVs can have "clinically similar presentations and are indistinguishable from one another on multiplex assays often used in clinical settings".

Serious neurologic complication

CDC also informed that the EV-D68 can sometimes cause acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), which is a rare but serious neurologic complication involving limb weakness.

It is said that 100 per cent recovery from AFM is rare. The process is quite difficult, but most patients improve to some extent.

In a report by NBC, it is said that the CDC this year has identified more EV-D68 cases among children with severe respiratory illness than in the past three years combined.

As quoted by NBC news, Dr Sarah Hopkins, a pediatric neurologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said: "We really thought this was going to happen in 2020, because we had the last spike in 2018. But then with mask-wearing and social distancing and all those things that limit the spread of a respiratory virus, we didn't have that expected spike."

The warning has been issued to notify healthcare providers, laboratories, infection control specialists and public health departments about recent increases in severe respiratory illness.

Also to urge the healthcare providers to consider EV-D68 as a possible cause of acute, severe respiratory illness (with or without fever) in children.

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