The number of acute neurologic illness with focal limb weakness of unknown etiology cases, acute partial paralysis, have increased substantially since the last report one week ago.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of October 15, they have verified reports of 37 cases in 16 states that meet the case definition for acute neurologic illness with focal limb weakness of unknown etiology.
The federal health agency says they are in the process of verifying more than a dozen additional reports.
The case definition for the condition is as follows: Patient ≤21 years of age, Acute onset of focal limb weakness, on or after August 1, 2014, AND an MRI showing a spinal cord lesion largely restricted to gray matter. The federal health agency says to be considered a case, a patient must meet ALL 4 of the aforementioned criteria.
The CDC reported in late September that the United States is currently experiencing a nationwide outbreak of EV-D68 associated with severe respiratory disease. The possible linkage of this cluster of neurologic disease to this large EV-D68 outbreak is part of the current investigation.
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