Knowledge Shot: What is acute flaccid myelitis, the polio-like paralyzing disease

Acute flaccid myelitis—or AFM—is inflammation of the spinal cord that causes sudden muscle weakness.

It’s a rare condition, fewer than one in a million people will get it a year, and it mainly affects children.

This disease has been in the news recently it looks like there are going to be more cases of AFM in 2018 than we saw last year.

This disease causes polio-like symptoms and while it can be caused by poliovirus, it can also be caused by environmental toxins, West Nile Virus, autoimmune diseases, and enteroviruses—especially enterovirus 68.

Unfortunately, the cause for many cases has not been determined.

Let’s break down what happens. The spinal cord, of course, is part of your nervous system and roughly speaking it allows for communication between your brain and all of the nerves that snake through the rest of your body.

When you step on a lego with your bare foot, your brain receives an inbound message about pain, and then sends an outbound message that tells your leg muscles to lift your foot, and your throat muscles to howl in pain.

Both the inbound and outbound messages are sent through the spinal cord.

The cells that transmit these messages are called neurons, and they can be incredibly long—even up to a few feet long!

These neurons have different parts to them.

They receive information through structures called dendrites, which then enter the cell body, which is like the cell’s headquarters.