Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Affecting North Texas Children

Scientists from coast-to-coast are studying an increase in cases of a polio-like illness in children.

As of August, at least 50 people in 24 states were confirmed to have acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, a viral illness that targets the body’s nervous system and can lead to paralysis and death.

Eleven of those cases are in Texas and at least five of them are in North Texas, according to doctors.

Infection with AFM leads to the limb weakness and paralysis.

Other symptoms include drooping eyelids, facial weakness and slurred speech, breathing problems, gastrointestinal infections and difficulty swallowing.

"The similarities to polio are frightening and real," said Dr. Benjamin Greenberg, pediatric neurologist at Children's Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

"What we see in children today is quite similar to what we saw in polio going back over a hundred years," Greenberg said.

Doctors are troubled by the increase in cases this year.

"We think we are going to see more cases. We don't know how many. When we look to 2014, we saw a spike in cases, going through July, August and September. Then, as it got to October, November, December, the cases declined, but we hope we are on the tail end."

Greenberg says the suspected cause of the condition is a virus called enterovirus-D68.

"We think this is triggered by a virus, specifically something called the enterovirus-D68 sub type, but there's a lot of debate on proving causation. In 2014, there was a large outbreak nationwide. We saw 120 kids of more nationwide come down with this paralytic conditions," Greenberg said.

"Not all kids recover and we are still looking at ways to improve those outcomes in any way possible. There's nationwide study trying to understand why some people get this condition and other don't, and of those who get it, why it's severe or mild," he adds.

Enterovirus-D68 is transmitted through casual contact and doctors say the best prevention is proper hygiene, like washing hands and avoiding contact with others while sick.

It's still not clear, however, whether the virus was the definite cause of AFM in 10-year-old Faith Dibley, of Frisco.

She went to bed one Saturday night in July with a strange pain in her left hand.

"It was stinging, so I thought I might have just injured it. I thought I needed a good night sleep," she said.

By Sunday morning, she wasn't able to move her legs, in addition to her left hand.

Her parents, Glenn and Kittren Dibley, say they knew right away they needed to take Faith to the emergency room.

"Her telling us, 'I can't walk, my legs feel funny,' and of course, her hands were still in a closed abnormal position," said Glenn Dibley, as he described the point they decided Faith needed medical attention.

They took her to Children's Medical Center of Dallas, where doctors had treated several cases like hers before.

They gave her therapies to "dampen down the immune system" in her spinal cord, which was inflamed, according to Dr. Greenberg, who says there is no FDA approved treatment therapies for AFM.

Faith recovered function of legs but still needs occupational therapy to regain full function of her left hand.

"I always thought when I was in the hospital, 'Why me? Why did it have to be me that got it out of billions of other people?' I was confused but I realize that God, he knows what's best so I was just trusting that it's gonna heal. It is going to get better so whatever happened, it's for the best," Faith said.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services have issued warnings about the uptick in AFM cases and are asking doctors to report any suspected cases to them as soon as possible.

Doctors at UT Southwestern and Children's Health are the lead site of an international study on Myelitis.

They say if your child develops any kind of weakness in the arms or legs, you should get him or her to the pediatrician right away.

"The likelihood is they will never become paralyzed. This is an extremely rare event. If you ever have a child develop weakness of any kind, weakness of arm or leg, it is very important to seek medical care with pediatrician," Greenberg said.

NBC News: Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Paralyzing U.S. Children