Wisconsin Hospitals Continue to Deal With Polio Like Disease
Wednesday, November 28th, 2018 -- 10:59 AM
(WRN) -Wisconsin hospitals continue to deal with six cases of a polio like condition that hit the US this summer and fall.It's called acute flaccid myelitis or AFM and it affects the nervous system much the same way meningitis does. Department of Health Services Epidemiologist Susann Arami-Fard says it's not likely that they are actually new cases, just cases that have been positively identified by the CDC.
"Neurologists and experts review all those things and they're the ones who give the final determination, and so that takes weeks."
Arami-Fard says the disease seems to piggyback into people's systems along with other infections during the summer and fall.
"We aren't seeing the same number of potential cases coming in, that has slowed down a lot, at least in Wisconsin."
Five of the six patients in Wisconsin are children. She says it will take a while for the infections to clear up, since there's no good way to speed along a recovery of a viral disease like this.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.