Page 28 - AT

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 23 OctOber 2019
Study points to virus as culprit in kids' paralyzing illness

By LAURAN NEERGAARD in the patients' spinal fluid, of patients harbored them,
AP Medical Writer leaving doubt about the compared to less than 10%
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sci- link. of other children.
entists have found the Antibodies programmed to Further work is underway to
strongest evidence yet track specific germs only narrow down the specific
that a virus is to blame for wind up in spinal fluid if they strains.
a mysterious illness that fought infection there — "Before we develop antivi-
can start like the sniffles but what Wilson's team set out rals or potential vaccines,
quickly paralyze children. to find. you really want to prove
The poliolike syndrome, The researchers custom- the viruses are causing dis-
called acute flaccid myeli- ized a Harvard-developed ease," said Dr. John V. Wil-
tis or AFM, is very rare. Since tool to search for evidence liams, infectious disease
the first reports from Califor- of hundreds of viruses si- chief at Children's Hospital
nia in 2012, the U.S. has ex- multaneously — including of Pittsburgh, who wasn't in-
perienced an increasingly herpes, measles, chicken- volved with the new study.
bigger outbreak every oth- pox, Zika and a whole list of "It's pretty compelling" evi-
er year, from late summer enteroviruses. Add some dence.
into fall. spinal fluid, and any anti- Mysteries remain. Enterovi-
Doctors have a chief sus- bodies present would stick ruses are hugely common,
pect but proof that it's the to their target, able to be and doctors don't know
culprit germ has been frus- identified. why only a tiny fraction of
tratingly elusive. In tests of spinal fluid from 42 those infected develop the
So researchers tried a new This image made available by NASA shows a map of a hole in AFM patients and 58 chil- ailment, Williams said.
trick: They checked pa- the ozone layer over Antarctica on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019. dren with unrelated neuro- And as 2020 approaches,
tients' spinal fluid for signs Associated Press logic illnesses, only entero- specialists are girding for
the immune system had ment have been confirmed spread respiratory illnesses. virus-targeting antibodies another possible spike next
fought an invading virus. in the U.S. since the Centers The problem: Doctors sel- emerged as the potential summer. "There's a lot of
Sure enough, kids who got for Disease Control and dom found those viruses culprit. Nearly three-fourths dread," Bove said.q
sick harbored antibodies Prevention began count-
that target enteroviruses, ing in 2014. Cases spiked
just the viral family special- that year and in 2016 and South Pole's ozone hole shrinks
ists believe is to blame. last year, with just a few in
"This is circumstantial evi- the intervening years. So to smallest since discovery
dence that this is what's far, there have been 22 this
going on, but it's a power- year. only United Nations treaty
ful piece of circumstantial Bove's son, Luca Waugh, ratified by every country
evidence," said Dr. Michael illustrates the pattern: His on Earth — banned many
Wilson of the University of whole family caught a of the chlorine compounds
California, San Francisco, cold in the summer of 2014 used in refrigerants and
who helped lead the re- — and a few days later, aerosols. The ban resulted
search. His team reported Luca woke up with weak- in a slightly smaller ozone
the findings Monday in Na- ness in his neck that trav- hole in recent years, but
ture Medicine. eled down his shoulder. this year's dramatic shrink-
Nailing down a suspect is Despite fast hospitalization, ing isn't from those efforts,
key to better diagnosis and within days he had body- Newman said.
eventually finding a way to wide paralysis and trouble Chlorine in the air needs
prevent or treat the illness, breathing. He recovered cold temperatures in the
said study co-author Dr. Ri- gradually, and today still This image made available by NASA shows a map of a hole in stratosphere and clouds to
ley Bove, a neurologist at has some paralysis in his the ozone layer over Antarctica on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019. convert into a form of the
the university whose own neck, shoulder and arm. Associated Press chemical that eats ozone,
son developed AFM at age Either a germ or the body's BY SETH BORENSTEIN NASA scientist Paul New- Newman said. The clouds
4. reaction to a germ was AP Science Writer man said Tuesday. "That go away when it warms up.
"If you don't have a cause, damaging nerves in the WASHINGTON (AP) — The means more ozone over But this September and
you can't have a vaccine," spinal cords of patients ozone hole near the south the hemisphere, less ultra- October, the southern po-
Bove noted. Wilson de- like Luca. The CDC noted pole this year is the small- violet radiation at the sur- lar vortex — which just like
veloped "a good enough that AFM spikes coincided est since it was discovered, face." Earth's ozone layer the northern one is a swirl
microscope, in a sense, to with seasons when certain but it is more due to freak- shields life on the surface of cold high-speed winds
find things they suspected strains of enteroviruses — ish Antarctic weather than from harmful solar radia- around the pole — started
were there." named EV-D68 and EV- efforts to cut down on pol- tion, but man-made chlo- to break down. At 12 miles
Some 590 cases of the ail- A71 — were causing wide- lution, NASA reported . rine compounds that can (20 kilometers) high in the
This fall, the average hole last in the air for 100 years atmosphere, temperatures
in Earth's protective ozone nibble at the ozone, creat- were 29 degrees (16 de-
layer is 3.6 million square ing thinning and a gap over grees Celsius) warmer than
miles (9.3 million square kilo- the Southern Hemisphere. average. Winds dropped
meters). That's down from a The hole reaches its peak from a normal 161 mph to
peak of 10.3 million square in September and Octo- about 67 mph (259 kph to
miles (26.6 million square ki- ber and disappears by 108 kph), NASA reported.
lometers) in 2006. late December until the This is something that hap-
This year's hole is even next spring in the Southern pens on occasion, occur-
smaller than the one first Hemisphere. ring in 1988 and 2002, but
discovered in 1985. The 1987 international not this extreme, Newman
"That's really good news," Montreal Protocol — the said.q