Another mysterious illness is now enveloping the corners of the US. With symptoms that can be compared to that of polio, the disease that inflicts mostly children is now causing a lot of health experts to worry. Joey Wilcox, a 4-year-old boy, is one of those who has almost faced death. All because of an illness, known as acute flaccid myelitis or AFM.
Their family's nightmare started last fall when Wilcox parents noticed that their little bundle of joy woke up not with his usual self. His face was drooping and feeling sick. Without any idea of what is happening to their baby, Joey's parents decided to send him to the hospital where he was taken inside the intensive care unit.
Every minute inside ICU was heartbreaking. Wilcox can't even move his arms or legs. According to Time, a lot of tests were given, but unfortunately, not a single result shed a light to the problem. Even Wilcox doctors were afraid they could only do little.
"It's devastating", said Jeremy Wilcox, Joey's father from Herndon, Virginia. "Your healthy child can catch a cold - and then become paralyzed," he added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that though the symptoms of this disease are almost the same as polio, which became epidemic during the 20th centuries, this disease won't infect as many children as compared to what happened before. But despite that, Fauci still warned not to take AFM for granted as it could still infect a lot of people.
Statistics show countries that have reported cases were France, Norway, Canada, Britain, and including some parts in the US. For almost a decade, more than 550 Americans were infected with the disease, with children being more susceptible to it, as reported by Medline Plus.
Patients were reported to experience cold-like symptoms during its first phase. Most of them claimed they had experienced a fever too. Days after, paralysis starts to happen. Some said it started in their thumb — others in their faces.
The cause of acute flaccid myelitis is still not certain. But health experts are looking into the probability that the virus could have already been on earth since 55 years ago and just mutated to become stronger and more powerful.
Meanwhile, experts still don't have a definite number of people who have recovered from this disease and the number of deaths because of it. There is but one thing that is certain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims death rates are still very low at present.
