Mysterious Polio-Like Disease Diagnosed in Five California Kids

A rare polio-like disease has been identified in five kids in California over a year paralyzing either one or more arms or legs.

The health experts in the United States are battling against polio-like disease in California afflicting children over the last one year. It is even affecting those who have been vaccinated against the poliovirus. Despite treatment, there is no improvement in the condition.

Researchers at Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif, are studying the reason behind this sudden onset of paralyses and are determining the cause of the disease.

"Although poliovirus has been eradicated from most of the globe, other viruses can also injure the spine, leading to a polio-like syndrome," said case report author Keith Van Haren, MD, Stanford University, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "In the past decade, newly identified strains of enterovirus have been linked to polio-like outbreaks among children in Asia and Australia. These five new cases highlight the possibility of an emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California."

Out of the five children three were diagnosed with respiratory illness before the symptoms became visible. They were treated for this condition but no improvement was noticed.

"We know definitively that it isn't polio," Van Haren said to LA Times.

Even after six months they continued to have poor limb function. Two out of five tested positive for enterovirus-68, a rare virus that was earlier linked with polio like symptoms, while no cause seen in the remaining three kids, ruling out the virus to be a causative agent.

"We think one reason why these cases may have occurred in California is that we are at the western-most part of the United States, so we may have had a higher circulation of the virus that was originally identified in Asia," Dr. Emmanuelle Waubant, co-author of the case report and a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, said to LiveScience.

Similar symptoms have been noticed in 20 other kids who are mostly between 2-16 years The health experts, however, do not expect an epidemic of this rare virus but have warned parents to be on the lookout and immediately get the child checked by a physician if they notice any symptoms associated with the disease.

"Our findings have important implications for disease surveillance, testing and treatment," said Van Haren. "We would like to stress that this syndrome appears to be very, very rare. Any time a parent sees symptoms of paralysis in a child, the child should be seen by a doctor right away."

Polio is a contagious disease that at times leads to paralysis. During the 1950s the U.S, faced a polio epidemic, until a vaccine was introduced.

 The case report was supported by the McHugh/Sprague Award from the Lucile Packard Foundation.