MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minneapolis mother said she has a full-time job finding help for her 4-year-old son whose left arm was paralyzed by a rare illness that’s been characterized as similar to polio.
Elaine Young told Minnesota Public Radio that the bulk of her days consist of making phone calls and therapy appointments for her son, Orville, who was diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis in July.
Elaine Young said doctors had a difficult time diagnosing the disease.
“First they wanted to send us home and told me to come back if it got worse, and they expected maybe he was just in pain and didn’t want to move it,” she said. “But he had no pain, and he just could not move his arm.”
AFM is a rare condition that affects the nervous system and causes the muscles and reflexes in the body to weaken, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness is similar to polio but doesn’t have a vaccine or a known cause.
The CDC first began tracking the condition in 2014. The agency has found that there’s an uptick in cases about every two years.
Minnesota saw seven more confirmed cases of AFM in October. The state typically expects zero or one cause of the disease annually, said Kris Ehresmann, the infectious disease director for the Minnesota Department of Health.
Ehresmann said the department issues a health alert to encourage health care providers in the state to be on the lookout for children with the disease’s symptoms.
“Given the attention and the energy that’s going into this, I think a lot of providers are now aware,” Ehresmann said.
Elaine Young said she hopes research on AFM can advance so more children don’t have to face the challenges her son is facing.
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Information from: Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mprnews.org
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