Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

14 INFECTION CONTROL Polio-like condition in kids likely to spike this fall, CDC warns By Anuja Vaidya B ased on previous trends, cases of acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like condition in children, may spike in the U.S. between August and No- vember, a CDC report found. Acute flaccid myelitis is a serious neurologic syndrome that affects mostly children and is characterized by the acute onset of limb weakness or pa- ralysis. The report, published Aug. 4, includes an analysis of data from 238 patients with confirmed acute flaccid myelitis during 2018. A majority of the patients (86 percent) experienced the onset of the con- dition between August and November. Most (92 percent) had prodromal fever, respiratory illness, or both, beginning a median of 6 days before experiencing limb weakness. Overall, 98 percent of patients were hospitalized, 54 percent were admitted to an intensive care unit, and 23 percent required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. Another peak acute flaccid myelitis year is anticipated this year, but it is unclear "whether or how the COVID-19 pandemic and recommended so- cial-distancing measures will affect" trends, the report states. As of July 31, there were 16 confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis in 2020. There have been 633 confirmed cases since CDC began tracking the condition in August 2014. n COVID-19 could derail decades of progress against TB, HIV and malaria By Mackenzie Bean T he COVID-19 pandemic is complicat- ing global efforts to diagnose and treat such infectious diseases as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV, which could undermine years of progress, health experts told e New York Times. e Times spoke with more than 24 public health officials, patients and physicians world- wide, who said COVID-19 lockdowns have prevented many people in Africa, Asia and Latin America from traveling to get diagnosed with these infectious diseases or receive nec- essary treatments. Travel restrictions have also limited shipments of drugs to hard-hit regions. Globally, the pandemic has disrupted services for about 80 percent of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis programs, according to a survey from e Global Fund. India, which com- prises 27 percent of global tuberculosis cases, has reported a nearly 75 percent drop in new diagnoses since the pandemic started. A three-month lockdown and 10-month grad- ual return to normal could cause an additional 6.3 million tuberculosis cases globally and 1.4 million deaths this year, according to one estimate cited by the Times. If current trends continue, some health ex- perts warn that the world could lose years or even decades of progress fighting tuberculosis, malaria and HIV. "COVID-19 risks derailing all our efforts and taking us back to where we were 20 years ago," Pedro L. Alonso, MD, PhD, director of the World Health Organization's global malaria program, told the Times. ese obstacles are spurring some changes to infectious disease treatment and management. For example, more providers are using video and phone calls to connect with patients, instead of having them travel long distanc- es to clinics. Some governments are also considering buying HIV treatments in bulk to give patients several months' worth of the medication, a move that aid groups have long recommended. n Mom transmitted coronavirus to baby in womb, Dallas physicians say By Anuja Vaidya A woman in Texas transmitted COVID-19 to her infant during her pregnan- cy, physicians at Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center said in an article published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. A woman, 34 weeks pregnant, came to UT Southwestern's teaching facility, Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, with signs of premature labor. She also had a fever and diarrhea, and she tested positive for COVID-19. Within five days of her hospitalization, she gave birth to a baby girl in early May. After 24 hours, the infant developed a fever and showed signs of respiratory distress. She was tested for COVID-19 24 and 48 hours after birth. Both tests came back positive. "At that time, the knowledge we had was that transmission doesn't occur in ute- ro, so we really weren't expecting that at all," said Julide Sisman, MD, first author of the article and an associate professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern. UT Southwestern researchers examined the mother's placenta to pinpoint how the virus was transmitted to the infant. They discovered evidence of the novel coronavirus in the placenta. Both the mother and infant survived and fully recovered. They were released from the hospital within a few weeks. The physicians said that more research is required to understand how COVID-19 affects mothers and their infants. n

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