1 of 8 Washington children with mysterious polio-like illness dies
Source: Fox News
1 of 8 Washington children with mysterious polio-like illness dies
Published November 01, 2016
One of the eight children sickened by a mysterious polio-like illness in Washington has died, Seattle Childrens Hospital confirmed Monday.
Q13Fox.com reported that state health officials are treating the cases like acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a neurological illness that attacks the spinal cord and mimics the paralysis effects of polio, but they have not yet confirmed that suspicion. In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a rise of AFM cases from 2015 to 2016.
The children in Washington all had a loss of strength or movement in one or more arms or legs with symptoms varying in severity and type, according to the state health department. Officials said the condition is not contagious.
Three of the children were hospitalized at Seattle Childrens last week, while five others have been released. The one who died Monday was among the three who was still hospitalized, the news station reported.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/11/01/1-8-washington-children-with-mysterious-polio-like-illness-dies.html
Of the eight children to have been hospitalized at Seattle Children's Hospital, five have been released, but two are still hospitalized.
Previously (a month ago) at DU:
Parents warned about rare illness that can leave kids paralyzed
From a local newspaper:
November 01, 2016
(SEATTLE, WA.) -- A six-year old boy from Bellingham, Daniel Ramirez died Sunday in Seattle after being hospitalized for an unknown illness. ... The boy's parents announced their son's death on a GoFundMe page saying, "Our boy was pronounced at 1:33pm Sunday October 30th...the virus that caused the death of our boy is still unknown but we refuse to give up!" ... As of early Tuesday morning just over $8,000 had been raised, with a goal of $20,000 to help the family cope with the many unexpected expenses that have accompanied their son's illness and now death.
On October 25 the family wrote that Daniel had been put into "a pentobarb-coma" on Friday October 21st to help his brain heal itself.
Eight children were recently treated at Seattle Childrens hospital for a rare neurological disease that presents with polio-like symptoms that doctors said was consistent with symptoms of Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a medical condition that affects the nervous system. ... Local published reports said Daniel was one of those eight children, five of which have since been released from the hospital. ... Daniel, according to family members suddenly got sick Oct. 15 with a fever, vomiting and other symptoms and was taken to a hospital in Bellingham then was flown to Seattle Childrens Hospital.
....
There is a multi-agency probe underway, including the Centers For Disease Control, to find out what caused the eight kids to become so sick and for Daniel Ramirez to pass away. ... More on that here.
bucolic_frolic
(43,123 posts)like a disease of the myelin sheath over nerves?
viral, fungal, perhaps co-conspirators with heavy metals or some man-made chemical
just a guess
uawchild
(2,208 posts)We have been pretty smug about our ability to contain pandemic outbreaks, but maybe, just maybe, we have only been lucky...
50 or 60 years is less than the blink of an eye, who knows what deadly virus can emerge tomorrow?
EMERGING PANDEMIC THREATS
https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/pandemic-influenza-and-other-emerging-threats
Happy All Souls Day.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)pnwmom
(108,973 posts)She specifically noted that there is no apparent link with being recently vaccinated against common childhood illnesses.
There is no evidence with AFM that people who are vaccinated are any more or less likely to come down with AFM, she said.
The first Washington case was seen in mid-September. The apparent cluster comes amid growing concern about an uptick in cases of the mysterious illness characterized by sudden weakness in one or more limbs and distinctive lesions on the spinal cord.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday that 89 confirmed cases of AFM have been reported in 33 states this year. That follows 120 cases reported in 34 states in 2014 and 21 cases in 16 states in 2015.
Despite extensive testing, CDC does not yet know the cause of the AFM cases, an agency website said.