The Atlantic

The Recurring Dread of a Paralyzing Illness

The 2018 spike in acute flaccid myelitis has peaked, but the quest to understand this debilitating illness continues.
Source: Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune / Getty

In 2014, as summer transitioned into fall, many of Riley Bove’s friends, colleagues, and family members came down with a particularly nasty cold. People were off sick from work, and kids were staying home from school, so when Bove’s 4-year-old son, Luca, developed some breathing problems, she wasn’t especially concerned. But a few days later, Luca’s symptoms took a strange turn. When he tried getting out of bed, his head flopped back down on his pillow. When he tried to grab a cup, his arm was weak.

, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, took Luca to a pediatrician, who dismissed the weakness as just another sign of his infection. But in the evening, when Luca failed to improve, Bove sent a video of

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