Rare polio-like illness that causes permanent paralysis and even death spreads to 31 states across the US
The CDC has already confirmed 116 cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) and is investigating a further 270 possible cases
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there have been 286 possible and confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) — a rare polio-like illness that causes paralysis, and in rare cases, death — in the country.
Amongst those 286 cases, 116 are confirmed. That number represents more than a threefold increase from 2017, when the CDC had received information for 33 confirmed cases from 16 states, though that's still less compared to the 149 confirmed cases from 39 states in 2016.