LOS ANGELES — Health officials are warning doctors about another contagious virus that, in rare cases, can send children to the hospital or lead to permanent paralysis.
In an advisory, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted an increase last month in the number of children hospitalized for severe respiratory illness — including enterovirus D68, or EV-D68.
First identified in California in 1962, EV-D68 is worrisome because, in rare cases, it can harm the spinal cord and cause a condition known as acute flaccid myelitis — which causes muscles to become weak and can sometimes cause paralysis.
