CDC Warns Of Polio-Like Mystery Illness That’s Paralyzing Kids

[ramonmercado]

A polio like disease is causing concern, CDC on the case.

A mysterious illness that’s sickening and even paralyzing children is prompting warnings this week from federal health officials to seek medical care immediately should anyone develop its symptoms.

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), an extremely rare but serious condition that affects the nervous system and causes the body’s muscles and reflexes to become weak, is on the rise across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Despite that alarm, there are a lot of unknowns about the polio-like illness, including what causes it and why it affects more children ― at the average age of 4 ― than adults.

“More than 90 percent of the cases are in children age 18 years and younger,” Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a CDC press conference.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...cid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__101818

 

[escargot]

Despite that alarm, there are a lot of unknowns about the polio-like illness, including what causes it and why it affects more children ― at the average age of 4 ― than adults.

“More than 90 percent of the cases are in children age 18 years and younger,”

Everyone probably knows all this but I'll repeat it anyway:

When new diseases affect younger people rather than older ones it's often because they're caused by a variation of an existing illness. Many older people have already met with it, usually in a milder form, and their immune systems have adapted to fight it off.

This is believed to have been the case with the 1918 flu pandemic.

It's also why milkmaids were traditionally believed to be beautiful. They were rarely affected by smallpox, which (if the sufferer survives) causes terrible scarring.

The milkmaids would catch cowpox, a mild rash on cows' udders, by milking the cattle. Cowpox and smallpox are closely related so the milkmaid's immune systems were 'primed' for the smallpox virus.