HEALTH

What you need to know about the polio-like illness afflicting kids in California

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, February 25, 2014 9:29PM EST

What you need to know about polio-like disease

In this photo taken with a mobile phone, Jessica Tomei holds her 4-year-old daughter, Sofia Jarvis, during a news conference at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University on Monday, Feb. 24, 2014, in Palo Alto, Calif. Sofia is one of a handful of California children who has been diagnosed with a rare polio-like syndrome that has left her arm paralyzed. Stanford researchers say there is a possibility of an emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California. (AP / Martha Mendoza)

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An extremely rare, polio-like disease has afflicted more than a dozen children in California, but health officials in the state have yet to identify any common causes connecting the cases.

California health officials probe polio-like illness afflicting kids

Here's what you need to know about the illness:

What do doctors know about the illness?

Doctors say the illness resembles -- but is not the same as -- polio.

The polio virus is part of a larger family of enteroviruses, each of which carry a small degree of paralysis risk.

Polio infections are more common in children under five, but according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, any person who is not immune to poliovirus, regardless of age, can become infected. Most people have no symptoms when they are infected. However, in about one per cent of cases, polio can infect and damage nerve cells in the spinal cord resulting in muscles that are weak or paralyzed.

Canada has been polio free since 1994. Children are routinely immunized against the virus.

What are the symptoms of the illness in California?

In each of the cases, the children suffered paralysis to one or more arms or legs. Researchers have theorized that the illness is a virus that for most children initially appears as a common cold, but some patients quickly experience much more serious symptoms.

In each case, the children had already been vaccinated against polio, but in two of the cases, the children were identified with the disease enterovirus-68, which is from the same family as the polio viruses.

Doctors are warning parents that if their children suddenly feel weak in one or more limbs, they should immediately seek medical care.

What are public health officials saying?

The California Department of Public Health says 20 reports of similar illnesses have been submitted to the agency and it's conducting tests on 15 of the specimens. The CDPH said it has not identified any common causes that suggest that the cases are linked and it's continuing to investigate.

Can this illness spread to other countries?

Experts say enteroviruses are common in southeast Asia, Africa, India, Pakistan and parts of South America, but they're typically not a problem in Canada and the United States. While the cases point to a possibility of an emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California, experts say there are too few cases to consider the spread of the illness an immediate threat.

With files from The Associated Press