Polio-like disease in Massachusetts

Doctors in Massachusetts hospitals have confirmed two cases acute flaccid myelitis also known as AMF. This Polio-like diseases is causing paralysis in its victims nation wide mostly being contracted by children around the age of four. Massachusetts General Hospital is working with patients to try and help find the cure and hopefully discover its cause.


The disease cripples the patient by causes muscle weakness and paralysis. AMF does this by attacking the spinal cord and or brain stem. After it infects it shows it's symptoms in any number or ways including, loss of bladder control, difficulty breathing, and weakness in an arm or a leg that can spread to other extremities sometimes with pain. Slurred speech, difficulty moving the eyes, facial weakness in one so young can also be a sign of AMF. 

 The CDC has been following this disease since 2014 and there are fewer than 70 patients across the country with it. This makes the disease extremely rare even though it can feel as though it is a wide spread occurance. The most common months for contracting acute flaccid myelitis is September through November. This is also a common time for flu and other seasonal colds. The best prevention at this time is the same for many other illnesses, proper hand hygiene. 

 While, at this time, there are only two cases of AMF diagnosed in the state of Massachusetts, there are about half a dozen other potential patients with this disease being investigated.

The disease can be diagnosed through brain scans, and treatment includes and anti-inflammatory medication.

For more information check theses links:

 https://www.boston.com/news/health/2018/10/19/acute-flaccid-myelitis-cases-massachusetts-2018

https://whdh.com/news/mystery-illness-health-officials-confirm-2-cases-of-polio-like-disease-in-massachusetts/

https://www.cdc.gov/acute-flaccid-myelitis/index.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Dose of the Pfizer Vaccine

Image
So not going to lie, I was skep tical. I was skeptical about getting the vaccine, even knowing that I had already made up my mind to get it.  My wife, was one of the states earliest cases of the vaccine in the state way back when Trump and many others where still routinely calling it the Wuhan virus or Chinese virus. We had no clue what the virus was about, the media was pushing fear and doom putting everyone in a frenz and there was very little real reliable information out there about what was real and not real with this vaccine. Well all I know still for a fact is my wife got it in bad way. Like a very bad case of Covid that rocked her world  and me... I got nothing. Not even a sniffle even though I was quarantined with her. Shared bed with her, breathed her air kissed her, took that virus in deep in my lungs and had kept constantly exposed to it in the home with her. She recovered, I came out of quarantine. I have had a couple Covid-19 tests and negative I still am, ant
Read more

EMS avoids Nursing home patients

Nursing homes transports have always been a staple of private EMS providers in Massachusetts. Now with rate cuts the lack of working EMTs (has always been an issue) and the larger companies snatching up new resource intensive contracts, the nursing homes are left out as the undesirables now. Nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities patients as well as home dialysis patients are steadily having a harder and harder time finding transportation, a sharp change that has seen large scale effects within the last few years especially. In 2018, the Bipartisan Budget Act, saw EMS companies looking for new opportunities in revenue as ESRD patient reimbursements got cut. While Covid19 sent many business across the country into survival mode as they began loosing money at an alarming pace, EMS companies across Massachusetts found themselves flush with cash as the opportunity to make greater money with a lower call volume presented itself to those business that were able to adapt quickly and tha
Read more

Coronavirus vaccine in Fall River

 Monday 2/22/2021 begins the next phase for Massachusetts residents eligibility to receive the  Coronavirus vaccine. Up until this date we have been working from Governor Baker's Phase 1 vaccination rollout.  So, welcome to Phase 2.  The plan is, with the roll out, to getting the rest of the critical care workers coming face to face with the vaccine as well as those other higher at risks groups. Which places have which vaccines though? Who has the Moderna vaccine and who has the Pfizer vaccine. And more recently, who in Fall River is giving out the new one shot Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine. 
Read more