22
February
2019
|
07:00 AM
America/New_York

Numbers for New York youngsters with polio-like illness dropping

Newsday reporter Delthia Ricks reports that cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) have been on a dramatic decline for more than a month for young New Yorkers.

AFM tends to present in the fall and move across the U.S., disappearing in winter time.

She reports that Scott W. Wolfe, MD, hand and upper extremity surgeon at HSS, has developed a delicate form of surgery in which healthy nerves are transferred to paralyzed areas of the body to help AFM patients regain useful function. Dr. Wolfe recently published his research involving two AFM cases in the journal Pediatric Neurologyto demonstrate to the medical community that young people do not have to endure paralysis.

Read the full article at Newsday.com. This also appeared in the February 22, 2019 print issue.