Mystery illness leaves more than 100 kids paralyzed with poliolike symptoms

More than 100 kids have been infected with a mysterious illness that causes poliolike symptoms of paralysis in the United States since August 2014.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Reports of the illness began surfacing around the same time enterovirus D68, a severe respiratory condition, began spreading among hundreds of children, according to the Kansas City Star.

The suspected link between the paralysis and EV-D68 was formed because there were signs that some of the paralyzed children had been in contact with EV-D68. This virus is a distant cousin of the polio virus.

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However, as research continues, the connection has fallen through. "Today, there is no association between EV-D68 and the paralysis," stated Mary Anne Jackson, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Mercy Hospital. "We just don't have any evidence that these two things go together."

Although EV-D68 has not been entirely ruled out, "the specific causes of this illness are still under investigation," the Centers for Disease Control stated in an earlier report.

The paralysis cases are "most similar to the enteroviruses, adenoviruses, West Nile viruses and Herpes viruses. The CDC is referring to the paralysis cases as 'acute flaccid myelitis' for now," according to The Blaze.

Two-thirds of the paralyzed patients have shown some improvement in regaining movement since getting sick. Only one patient, out of the more than 100, has made a full recovery.

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According to the Kansas City Star, the Children's Mercy researchers are collaborating with the CDC to examine blood serum from nearly 500 toddlers, children, teens and adults obtained before the EV-D68 outbreak, to look for antibodies. They are also going over several years worth of brain and spinal cord scans to find evidence of the kind neurological damage the paralysis causes.

"It's a medical mystery," explained Jackson. "This is just the beginning of the story."

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