Original version

BBC World Service Online

Health Check

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

BBC World Service

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Health Check: What’s Behind a Spike of AFM Cases in the US?

Magazines & Reviews

AFM-1057956268 CROP.jpg

2018/10/31 GMT

What’s Behind a Spike of AFM Cases in the US?

BBC World Service - Health Check, What’s Behind a Spike of AFM Cases in the US?

The mysterious, rare, polio-like disease causing paralysis in young children in the US

A spike of a rare, polio-like disease in the United States; The latest attempts to stem the spread of TB; Are the baby boxes promoted in some hospitals as safe as they seem?

AFM, or Acute Flaccid Myelitis, is a rare disorder of the spinal cord, mostly affecting young children. It manifests with really rapid onset of paralysis typically affecting the limbs, and in severe cases, the muscles needed for breathing and swallowing. Recently there been a spike of the disease in the United States, which has had over 190 suspected cases this year. As explained by Dr Olwen Murphy, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, it is thought to be triggered by a virus which only causes serious symptoms in a small percentage of people.

TB is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, one of the top ten total causes of death in the world which kills more people every three days than the total number of deaths in the entire West African Ebola epidemic. It is treatable with antibiotics, but patients can face months of isolation and years of taking medicines. Some forms of TB have become resistant to first line antibiotics, leaving patients with no option but to take other drugs that risk of serious side effects such as blindness. 
At a recent high level UN meeting on TB, member states pledged to stop TB by 2030, but without the money and political will that have made other diseases household names, TB will remain a huge killer. Hannah McNeish reports from the Netherlands on the latest developments in treating the disease.

A baby box is a cardboard box full of goodies for newborn babies, and which can also act as a cot. They were first used in Finland in the1930s, as a part of a drive to improve maternal and infant health, and have grown in popularity in recent years. Every baby in Scotland is now given one and there are various commercial options available as well, some of which are being donated to hospitals in England and Wales. However there is increasing concern about the way they have been promoted, particularly the link between use of the box and low rates of SIDS, of which there is no evidence. Furthermore there are several safety worries about the boxes and they may actually be harmful. Consequently, several senior doctors and academics have written to the British Medical Journal expressing their concerns. Francine Bates, Chief Executive of the Lullaby Trust, a UK-based charity raising awareness about cot death, was one of the signatories.





(Picture: AFM disease or acute flaccid myelitis medical concept as a neurologic condition representing enterovirus or polio virus as a 3D illustration.                                               © Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Health Check

What’s Behind a Spike of AFM Cases in the US?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service