A polio-like disease is on the rise across the U.S., health officials reported this week.
The rare condition has been documented in 24 states, with the majority of cases (90 percent) affecting children, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been monitoring cases of Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) since 2014.
“It’s something that’s very scary for people because it’s a polio-like illness and it can show up in otherwise healthy children” Dr. Aaron Michael Milstone, the Associate Professor Pediatrics at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, tells PEOPLE.
AFM has a startling similarity to polio in its target of the nervous system and spinal chord and symptoms of limp weakness, paralysis and respiratory failure.
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