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    With a surge in cases of mysterious polio-like condition, CDC appeals to doctors to help crack case

    With a surge in cases of mysterious polio-like condition, the CDC is appealing to doctors for help to help crack the case.
    by Helen Branswell Jul 09, 2019 4 minutes
    Braden Scott uses a device to support his left arm as he practices on the piano in Tomball, Texas. He was diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis in 2016 and was paralyzed almost completely.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday appealed to doctors to rapidly report suspected cases of a mysterious ailment that afflicts young children, saying delays in identifying possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, are hindering the search for the condition’s cause.

    Every two years since 2014, a surge of the polio-like illnesses has struck a number of young children across the country, leaving them with weakened limbs. Efforts to find the cause of the phenomenon have pointed to viral infections as a possible culprit, but to date no one virus has been clearly implicated.

    Dr. Tom Clark, deputy director of CDC’s division of viral diseases,

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