COVID-19 measures could disrupt rare polio-like disease

FILE - In this June 26, 2020 file photo, a man and his son are silhouetted against the sky as they watch the sunset from a park in Kansas City, Mo. Health experts once thought 2020 might be the worst year yet for a rare paralyzing disease that has been hitting U.S. children for the past decade. But they now say the coronavirus pandemic could disrupt the pattern for the mysterious illnesses, which spike every other year starting in late summer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) FILE - In this June 26, 2020 file photo, a man and his son are silhouetted against the sky as they watch the sunset from a park in Kansas City, Mo. Health experts once thought 2020 might be the worst year yet for a rare paralyzing disease that has been hitting U.S. children for the past decade. But they now say the coronavirus pandemic could disrupt the pattern for the mysterious illnesses, which spike every other year starting in late summer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

By MIKE STOBBE / AP Medical Writer August 4, 2020 3 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – Health experts once thought 2020 might be the worst year yet for a rare paralyzing disease that has been hitting U.S. children for the past decade.

But they now say the coronavirus pandemic could disrupt the pattern for the mysterious illnesses, which spike every other year starting in late summer.

Scientists say it’s possible that mask wearing, school closures and others measures designed to stop spread of the coronavirus may also hamper spread of the virus suspected of causing the paralyzing disease.

Dr. David Kimberlin, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, called it “the million-dollar question.”

“We just simply don’t know right now,” said Kimberlin, who is co-leader of a national study to gather specimens from children who develop the paralyzing condition.