Puzzles of polio-like teething uncovered

Virus infection Cause of threatening paralysis in children

In recent years, children in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the United States have increasingly found a puzzling disease similar in symptoms to polio. The cause of childhood illness has remained unclear. Now special viruses were determined as triggers. mystery

Australian scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, together with American colleagues at Arizona State University in Tempe, have identified the enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) as the cause of the enigmatic polio-like childhood disease. Based on the so-called Bradford Hill criteria, the researchers were able to prove that the viruses were the cause of paralysis in children in the US, Canada and some Asian and European countries. The study was published in the journal "Eurosurveillance Journal".

Enteroviruses are apparently the cause of a rätshalfte teething disorder with paralysis, which occurs more frequently for several years. (Image: Andrey Popov / fotolia.com)

Since 2014, increased diseases

The University of New South Wales researchers, together with their American counterparts, have shown convincing evidence that the "Enterovirus D68" (EV-D68) is responsible for the enigmatic polio-like disease, reports the Ranke-Heinemann Institute as an Australian-New Zealandian University network of the study results. "In 2014, the enigmatic disease known as acute flat spinal cord inflammation was diagnosed among the first children in America," explains study leader Prof. Raina MacIntyre, director of the Australian NHMRC Center for Research Excellence in Epidemic Response. To date, more than 120 children are affected by the disease, but the cause has remained unclear.

Viral infections also increased significantly

According to the researchers, in addition to the strange illnesses of the children, an above-average outbreak rate of infections with EV-D68 was found, a virus that has been known since the early 1960s and causes cold symptoms, muscle pain, fever and respiratory disorders. In the United States, Canada, and some Asian and European countries, around 2,280 people, including many children, developed symptoms that were even worse, the researchers report.

Proof of medical causality

Since there were many debilitating diseases in children in regions with many EV-D68, it was suspected that "there must be a link between EV-D68 and acute flaccid spinal cord inflammation," says MacIntyre. So far, however, it was not known that the virus can also cause paralysis. The researchers therefore performed a literature review based on the Bradford Hill Criteria for acute flaccid spinal cord inflammation. The method serves to demonstrate medical causality and was used, among other things, to prove the connection between smoking and cancer.

EV-D68 most likely the cause

"We are the first to use this approach to demonstrate an association between EV-D68 and acute flaccid spinal cord inflammation," says Prof. MacIntyre. The current findings confirm that "EV-D68 is most likely the cause of the children's puzzling disease and paralysis," the expert said. This link must now be recognized, so that new prevention measures can be initiated.

Prevent spread

Overall, the occurrence of EV-D68 is rapidly increasing worldwide, the experts warn. In addition, there is currently no medical treatment and vaccine for the polio-like disease caused by EV-D68. Therefore, it would be even more important to prevent the further spread. Appropriate hygiene measures, such as washing hands with soap for 20 seconds, could already prevent their spread. (Fp)