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Source: https://www.statnews.com/2019/07/09/...peals-doctors/
With a surge in cases of mysterious polio-like condition, CDC appeals to doctors to help crack case
By Helen Branswell
July 9, 2019
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday appealed to doctors to rapidly report suspected cases of a mysterious ailment that afflicts young children, saying delays in identifying possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, are hindering the search for the condition?s cause.
Every two years since 2014, a surge of the polio-like illnesses has struck a number of young children across the country, leaving them with weakened limbs. Efforts to find the cause of the phenomenon have pointed to viral infections as a possible culprit, but to date no one virus has been clearly implicated.
Dr. Tom Clark, deputy director of CDC?s division of viral diseases, said the agency needs to hear about these cases while they are being investigated in hospital, not after the fact. Sometimes cases are not reported for months, he said.
?The kid may have gone home [from hospital] before we?re even notified. It?s not ideal for us,? Clark told STAT. ?This delay in reporting kind of hamstrings our efforts to systematically do the right laboratory testing.?...
With a surge in cases of mysterious polio-like condition, CDC appeals to doctors to help crack case
By Helen Branswell
July 9, 2019
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday appealed to doctors to rapidly report suspected cases of a mysterious ailment that afflicts young children, saying delays in identifying possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, are hindering the search for the condition?s cause.
Every two years since 2014, a surge of the polio-like illnesses has struck a number of young children across the country, leaving them with weakened limbs. Efforts to find the cause of the phenomenon have pointed to viral infections as a possible culprit, but to date no one virus has been clearly implicated.
Dr. Tom Clark, deputy director of CDC?s division of viral diseases, said the agency needs to hear about these cases while they are being investigated in hospital, not after the fact. Sometimes cases are not reported for months, he said.
?The kid may have gone home [from hospital] before we?re even notified. It?s not ideal for us,? Clark told STAT. ?This delay in reporting kind of hamstrings our efforts to systematically do the right laboratory testing.?...
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