A rare and mysterious polio-like illness may have afflicted up to 25 children in California, several of whom have suffered limb paralysis, and health experts were struggling to identify the cause of the ailment, medical researchers said on Monday.
Since 2012, between 20 and 25 previously healthy children from across California have shown signs of the illness, possibly caused by an infectious virus, the American Academy of Neurology said in a statement detailing the research of two California neurologists.
One of the children remains in serious condition but none have died from the syndrome, researchers said.
Stanford University pediatric neurologist Keith Van Haren said in a statement that the cases could indicate the possibility of an “emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California,” although federal health officials said there were too few cases to consider the spread of the ailment as an imminent threat.
Polio, eradicated in the United States over three decades ago, is an infectious virus that can permanently paralyze or kill victims within hours of infection. A vaccine, developed in the 1950s nearly wiped out the disease worldwide, although it remains endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
A study of five California children affected by the mystery ailment found they experienced the sudden paralysis of one or more limbs, with the symptoms reaching the height of severity within two days, according to findings of research by Van Haren and University of San Francisco neurologist Emmanuelle Waubant.
“Although poliovirus has been eradicated from most of the globe, other viruses can also injure the spine, leading to a polio-like syndrome,” Van Haren said in a statement.