Polio-Like Illness Outbreak Could Return To IL In 2020: CDC

ILLINOIS — While Illinois and other states continue to battle the coronavirus, another potentially life-threatening illness is poised for another outbreak, and this one mainly affects children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC on Tuesday announced it expects another wave of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a rare but serious neurological illness that can cause paralysis. The illness most recently made headlines in 2018.

Outbreaks of the polio-like illness typically peak every two years between August and November, the CDC said, and officials expect 2020 to be another peak year.

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In 2018, nine Illinois children were positively diagnosed with AFM, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Another three cases were suspected in Illinois in 2019, and so far in 2020, two cases have been positively diagnosed and a third suspected in the state. Across the U.S., there have been 16 confirmed cases in 10 states, including Illinois and Washington, D.C., so far in 2020, and 38 reports of patients under investigation (PUIs).

Since 2017, two U.S. patients with AFM have died — one in 2017 and another in 2020.

"The underlying cause(s) of AFM is not known," state health officials said in 2018.

The CDC warned that although AFM is rare, doctors and parents should be vigilant for signs of the illness, which can progress quickly over the course of days or even hours and can lead to permanent paralysis or life-threatening respiratory failure, even in otherwise healthy patients, according to the CDC.

"Parents and doctors should suspect AFM in patients with sudden limb weakness, especially during August through November," the CDC said, cautioning parents and doctors to watch for recent respiratory illness, fever, neck or back pain, or any neurologic symptom.

"As we head into these critical next months, CDC is taking necessary steps to help clinicians better recognize signs and symptoms of AFM in children," said CDC Director Robert Redfield.

In 2018, most cases were in children (94 percent), and most patients (86 percent) had AFM onset during August through November. Most patients also had a fever, respiratory symptoms or both approximately six days before the onset of limb weakness. Other common early symptoms were difficulty walking, neck or back pain and limb pain.

Thomas Clark, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases, said doctors should remain wary and evaluate patients for suspected AFM quickly.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, this may require adjusting practices to perform clinical evaluations of patients by phone or telemedicine," Clark said, but added that doctors "should not delay hospitalizing patients when they suspect AFM."