Study confirms pathogenesis of EV-D68 virus causing polio-like paralyzing illness in children

Medical Xpress

Center

High Factuality

Study confirms pathogenesis of EV-D68 virus causing polio-like paralyzing illness in children

A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides evidence that enterovirus D68 directly infects spinal cord neurons and that a corresponding robust immune response is present—a direct causation to the polio-like paralyzing illness, acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). Matthew Vogt, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and microbiology & immunology at the UNC School of Medicine, is the lead author of the study.