Doctors should be on the lookout for cases of a respiratory virus that can sometimes cause polio-like muscle weakness and paralysis in children, U.S. health officials said.
Young children with respiratory illnesses and muscle weakness may be infected with enterovirus D68, a lung virus strain that’s been linked to rare, serious cases acute flaccid myelitis, a nervous system ailment, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Tuesday. The most common signs and symptoms seen in hospitalized children have been shortness of breath or rapid, shallow breathing, wheezing, coughing and nasal congestion. Infections can also worsen asthma symptoms.
While polio is one of the most dangerous enteroviruses, most other strains in the class are associated with mild disease. Peaks of enterovirus D68 cases and associated muscle weakness were noted in 2014, 2016 and 2018, the report said. While those waned in 2020, possibly as a result of masking and decreased social interaction during the early months of the pandemic, hospital visits from respiratory illness rose again during the summer of 2022.
