National AFM Day – September 23, 2024

History of National AFM Day

The medical condition acute flaccid myelitis (A.F.M.) has only been formally tracked since 2014 — with the number of cases spiking in recent years. A group of people based in Texas reported their observation of a similar pattern in 2013 of between one and four cases annually with characteristics similar to polio. In 2014, the C.D.C. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report as well as a C.D.C. Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity conference call identified that many A.F.M. cases had neck, back, or extremity pain, but otherwise, patients generally had normal sensation in their limbs. Several participants in the conference call shared whether pain, later abating, might precede the onset of paralysis.

An October 2014 report described outbreaks in California and Colorado, United States, suggesting that there was a high number of cases nationwide. Diagnosis included a fully detailed medical history, M.R.I. imaging, and the elimination of transverse myelitis or Guillain–Barré syndrome as potential causes. Physicians used an online mailing list to communicate about and compare similar cases in Alabama and Kansas. The largest known series of cases of A.F.M. in the U.S. was in Colorado, with 29 total, 12 of whom had been reported from August and onwards of that year.

The C.D.C. since requested physicians provision of information about cases meeting these criteria: patients diagnosed after August 1, 2014, who are no older than 21 years of age; patients showing the acute onset of focal limb weakness; and patients with a spinal cord lesion largely restricted to gray matter visualized by M.R.I. In November 2018, the C.D.C. reported their investigation of 286 cases, with at least 116 confirmed cases in 31 states in the U.S. The C.D.C. has set up a task force to investigate the causes and find treatments for A.F.M.