Sarah Childs- Polio-like Illness Paralyzing US Children

Summary: Polio is a very familiar infectious disease that leads to paralysis or even death. Today, most children do not have to worry about the virus, as it hasn't been an issue in the United States since 1979. But this past week, a strange spike in acute flaccid myelitis, a disease very similar to Polio, was reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They confirmed this in nearly half of the states in the country. During the time period between January 1 to August 31, 50 people in 24 states were diagnosed with this disease and the majority of the cases are in children. Similarly to Polio, AFM affects your nervous system, especially the spinal cord. On the other hand, the one major difference between these two diseases is that there is no cure for AFM. The doctors do not even know the real cause of this rare disease. Messacar sums this whole ordeal up, "We understand this condition better than we did in 2014, but there's still a lot to learn. The process is slow, but progress is being made."

Analysis: This article was produced October 5th by Ben Tinker at CNN. This credible source does not affect my interpretation of the article, in fact, I do not feel that this subject is biased whatsoever. Prior to reading this article, I did not have any knowledge about the recent outbreak of AFM. For this reason, I was completely influenced by this article. It's purpose was to inform the audience of our new outbreak of a rare but extremely serious disease. It also was to convince people to remain calm, but also to take certain precautions. This is very significant because it brings awareness to a recent issue that I know I would have not been aware of. The outbreak of AFM could synthesize to the 1952 Polio epidemic for many reasons. Innocent, young Americans were paralyzed and died both during 1952 as well as the recent outbreak this past summer of ASM. Additionally, these diseases ate extremely similar and just as we do not have a cure for AMS, scientists did not have a Polio cure during the 1950s. Hopefully, this is merely a small outbreak and we are able to stop it soon!

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/health/afm-polio-like-flaccid-myelitis-paralysis-children/index.html