Society for Pediatric Urgent Care

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Society for Pediatric Urgent Care

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Acute flaccid myelitis in the United States 2015-2017

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CDC recently released an article in Pediatrics about acute flaccid myelitis activity in the United States from 2015 to 2017.
Key Findings

  • From 2015 to 2017, 193 patients aged 21 and younger in 41 states were confirmed to have AFM.
  • Most cases (116) occurred between August and November, with the largest number of cases (143) occurring in 2016.
  • The median age of cases was 6 years.
  • Strong evidence pointed to viruses, including enteroviruses, as having a role in these AFM cases.
  • Most cases (79%) had a respiratory illness or fever less than a week before weakness onset.
  • One CSF specimen tested positive for coxsackievirus A16; finding virus in the spinal fluid continues to be challenging.
  • Close to 30% of respiratory specimens tested positive for enteroviruses or rhinoviruses.
  • No single pathogen was identified as the primary cause of AFM

How You Can Help:
Variability in awareness about AFM can lead to underreporting to the health department and affect timely collection of appropriate specimens. Continue to spread the word about AFM by sharing this information with colleagues, posting links to the article, or by retweeting CDC’s AFM tweets from @DrNancyM_CDC and @CDCdirector.