The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sounded the alarm that 2020 is likely a peak year for a potentially life-threatening neurological disease that affects healthy children.

Known as acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, the polio-like condition is believed to be caused by a virus and spikes every other year starting in late summer.

There have been sixteen confirmed cases just this year and thirty-eight reports of patients under investigation, as of July 31. There were forty-six confirmed cases last year. In a study of cases from 2018, the CDC found that the median age of the affected children was five years old, and nearly 25% needed to be put on breathing machines.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic grabbing most headlines and already overwhelming clinics and hospitals across the country, health officials are doing their best to draw attention to this dangerous disease.

The CDC has made a public call for both parents and doctors to watch for the first signs of illness, particularly sudden limb weakness. In 2018, 10% of patients were not hospitalized until four or more days after limb weakness began, the agency noted.

“AFM can progress rapidly over the course of hours or days, leading to permanent paralysis and/or the life-threatening complication of respiratory failure in previously healthy patients, so delays in care can be serious,” the CDC said in a statement.

“Parents and doctors should suspect AFM in patients with sudden limb weakness, especially during August through November. Recent respiratory illness or fever and the presence of neck or back pain or any neurologic symptom should heighten their concern.”

Many children do regain at least some movement in the affected limbs, but stories of complete recovery are usually rare.

Health experts, however, are open to the possibility that current measures designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing and wearing of face masks, may also curb the spread of the virus that causes AFM.

Dr. David Kimberlin, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told The Associated Press that it is “the million-dollar question.”

“We just simply don’t know right now,” said Kimberlin, who is a co-leader of a national study to gather specimens from children who develop the paralyzing condition.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters