The year 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered as an unpleasant year in the history of both medicine and humanity. As scientists point out, this sad chapter also brought some surprises for which we can be grateful!
In a new study, scientists found that if it weren't for the COVID-19 pandemic, we would still be dealing with another mysterious disease outbreak. Only the SARS-CoV-2 virus changed the course of events.
What is this mysterious disease?
The condition in question isacute flaccid myelitis(AFM). This rare neurological disease has been known in medicine for a long time. It particularly affects children, the researchers reported, causing muscle weakness and, in some cases, permanent paralysis. It can also lead to death.
For decades, cases of AFM have been very rare.Nevertheless, the situation has changed somewhat, and in recent years in the United States, among others, more and more often - usually every two years - cases of AFM were noticeable among the population. Many previous studies have shown thatenteroviruses, and especially enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) , are responsible for causing this mysterious disease. According to the researchers, the COVID-19 pandemic may have been affected by the spread of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68). They decided to take a closer look at it.
The Enterovirus EV-D68 outbreak was near?
A team of researchers led by Princeton University's Sand Woo Parkstudied the case patterns of the enterovirus EV-D68 in 2014-2019 . The researchers noted that the virus returned in even years - in 2014, 2016 and 2022, which they also believe can be attributed to climatic factors. Since the enterovirus EV-D68 epidemic broke out successively every two years,according to scientists, in 2022 there should have been another hit . According to scientists, were it not for the coronavirus, there might have been an outbreak of AFM caused by the enterovirus EV-D68.
- Our preliminary analysis indicates that "most likely the COVID-19 pandemic inhibited the spread of enterovirus EV-D68 in 2022, the researchers explained.
Source: Science Alert
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