Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is a form of acute flaccid paralysis.
“AFM can be difficult to diagnose because it shares many of the same symptoms as other neurologic diseases, like transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barre syndrome. With the help of testing and examinations, doctors can distinguish between AFM and other neurologic conditions.”
About Acute Flaccid Myelitis
AFM is not transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), or Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM) though, although anti-vaccine folks are trying hard to make a connection.
Is AFM a Form of Transverse Myelitis?
AFM is similar to transverse myelitis, in that they both affect a person’s spinal cord, but a big difference is that TM results from “an immune-mediated inflammatory attack of a person’s spinal cord.”
“This report and others indicate that AFM represents a unique subset of acute flaccid paralysis distinct from GBS and transverse myelitis. GBS typically presents with an ascending paralysis and can be associated with facial paralysis and sensory symptoms. Children with transverse myelitis have weakness and prominent sensory loss, often manifest as a spinal sensory level. By contrast, the majority of children with AFM have focal, poliomyelitis-like spinal cord paralysis with minimal or no sensory symptoms.”
Recognition and Management of Acute Flaccid Myelitis in Children
And AFM has different symptoms from both TM and GBS.
So why try to connect AFM with TM, GBS, and ADEM? Because they think that vaccines cause TM, GBS, and ADEM.
They don’t. Just like vaccines don’t cause AFM.
But can’t you find some of these things listed in the package insert for some vaccines?
Yes, but when mentioned in a vaccine’s package insert, like for autism, SIDS, or meningitis, it is in the section where it is clear that it is “without regard to causality.”
AFM is not transverse myelitis and neither are caused by vaccines.
We will hopefully learn what is causing the latest cases of AFM soon.
More on AFM and Transverse Myelitis
- CDC – About Acute Flaccid Myelitis
- The Transverse Myelitis Association Disease Information
- Recognition and Management of Acute Flaccid Myelitis in Children.
- Argument by Vaccine Package Inserts – debunking myths
- Package Inserts – Understanding What They Do (and Don’t) Say
- Vaccine Package Inserts: Not all you should be reading
- Debunking anti-vaccine arguments: VAERS, package inserts, and the VICP do not prove that vaccines are dangerous
- The vaccine package insert paradox
- Do Vaccines Cause Meningitis or Encephalitis/Encephalopathy?
- Do Vaccines Cause Transverse Myelitis?