Acute Flaccid Myelitis News and Research

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Review highlights challenges in managing childhood enterovirus infections

Enteroviruses (EVs) are a diverse group of viruses and a common cause of multiple infections in children.

1 Sep 2026

Immune surveillance in children sheds light on virus rebound after COVID

The first paper from a multi-year clinical research study has been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Dynamics of Endemic Virus Re-emergence in Children in the USA Following the COVID-19 Pandemic (2022-2023): A Longitudinal Immunoepidemiologic Surveillance Study and demonstrates how the approach can improve modeling to better predict future outbreaks.

7 Aug 2025

Children show delayed exposure to respiratory viruses after COVID restrictions

COVID-19 prevention methods such as masking and social distancing also suppressed the circulation of common respiratory diseases, leaving young children lacking immunity to pathogens they otherwise would have been exposed to, a new multi-center clinical research study reveals.

6 Aug 2025

Gaps in surveillance leave European children at risk of acute flaccid myelitis

European researchers surveyed 28 countries and found acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) remains underreported, with only Norway maintaining dedicated surveillance. Most AFM cases coincided with years of high enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) circulation, highlighting gaps in monitoring and preparedness.

2 Jun 2025

New treatment offers hope for children with Acute Flaccid Myelitis

Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute's International Center for Spinal Cord Injury (ICSCI) have made a remarkable advancement in treating children with Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a rare but severe neurological condition that causes sudden paralysis.

12 Nov 2024

Clinical trial seeks to evaluate safety of new EV-D68 treatment

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is sponsoring a clinical trial to evaluate the safety of an investigational monoclonal antibody to treat enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), which can cause severe respiratory and neurological diseases such as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) – similar to polio. Scientists are striving to better understand AFM, which has emerged in the United States with spikes in cases every other year, primarily in the late-summer months over the last decade.

28 Jun 2024

Government seeks views on proposed changes to the Health Protection Notification Regulations 2010

The Health Protection Notification Regulations 2010 (HPNR) help us respond promptly to suspected cases of infectious disease that could have an impact on public health.

13 Jul 2023

Prevalence study uncovers rising threat: enterovirus D68 and acute flaccid myelitis link

Study evaluated the changes in the transmission of EV-D68 in England inferred from seroprevalence data.

23 Jun 2023

Both vaccine strain and adjuvant selection are critical elements for improving the breadth of protective immunity against enterovirus D68

Researchers demonstrated the production of cross-clade neutralizing antibodies in response to EV-D68.

19 May 2023

CDC Health Alert Network provides recommendations to manage the recent increase in severe respiratory illness among children

The US CDC’s HAN has provided certain recommendations to inform healthcare providers, infection control professionals, clinical laboratories, and public health departments about the recent increase in pediatric cases of severe respiratory illness in several regions of the USA.

14 Sep 2022

Exploring a paralytic poliomyelitis case in an unvaccinated person

Researchers investigated the public health response to a paralytic poliomyelitis case in an unvaccinated person.

19 Aug 2022

New evidence confirms that enterovirus D68 causes acute flaccid myelitis

A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides evidence that enterovirus D68 directly infects spinal cord neurons and that a corresponding robust immune response is present – a direct causation to the polio-like paralyzing illness, acute flaccid myelitis (AFM).

26 May 2022

Scientists to develop highly sensitive antibody tests for infection caused by all coronaviruses

Scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and SunYat-Sen University in China have set the stage for the development of highly sensitive antibody tests for infection with all known human coronaviruses, including new variants of SARS-CoV-2.

17 Feb 2021

CDC warns acute flaccid myelitis is poised for a comeback in kids this fall

As if the novel coronavirus pandemic was not enough! Now the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns parents and pediatricians to be on the watch for a rare condition called Acute Flaccid Myelitis or AFM for short, which could affect young children and cause unexplained muscle paralysis similar to poliomyelitis. Their report is published today in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

5 Aug 2020

Researchers isolate protective antibodies for rare, polio-like disease in children

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have isolated human monoclonal antibodies that potentially can prevent a rare but devastating polio-like illness in children linked to a respiratory viral infection.

3 Jul 2020

Stopping cold viruses dead by blocking replication

The common cold virus (and its more deadly cousins, the viruses that cause polio and acute flaccid myelitis) may just have met its nemesis. In a recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology on September 16, 2019, scientists reported a potentially successful new approach to stop cold viruses from replicating inside human cells – by blocking the formation of a protein that is vital to this process.

17 Sep 2019

Stanford-UCSF researchers report new cure for common cold in human cells and mice

Temporarily disabling a single protein inside our cells might be able to protect us from the common cold and other viral diseases, according to a study led by researchers at Stanford University and University of California-San Francisco.

16 Sep 2019

Scientists point to enterovirus infection as cause for acute flaccid myelitis

Scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of California San Diego report antibody evidence in cerebrospinal fluid that points to enterovirus infection as a cause for acute flaccid myelitis, a disease responsible for partially paralyzing more than 560 children in the United States since 2014. Results of the study appear in the journal mBio.

13 Aug 2019

Study provides evidence that enterovirus may be a factor in acute flaccid myelitis

A new study analyzing samples from patients with and without acute flaccid myelitis provides additional evidence for an association between the rare but often serious condition that causes muscle weakness and paralysis, and infection with non-polio enteroviruses.