Symptoms and signs of AFP:

Acute Flaccid Paralysis is not a disease per se, but a symptom, which can have several causes. Often, the cause of AFP cannot be determined right away. In order not to miss a case of polio, all AFP cases must be reported and further investigated, even at the cost of identifying many AFP cases not due to polio.

The following list should be used to look for patients with AFP:

Paralysis (in combination with any other words), paresis (weakness), flaccid (floppy or reduced tone)

Weakness of any limb, of unclear origin, etc.

"Frequent falls", "gait disturbance", "cannot walk", etc.

Diagnosis of AFP:

Some illnesses always present with AFP, while others only sometimes.

Always present with AFP:

Poliomyelitis: paralytic polio causes rapidly progressing floppy paralysis of usually one leg or one arm

Guillan-Barre Syndrome: disease causing slowly progressing floppy paralysis of both legs

Transverse myelitis: rare illness causing floppy paralysis of both legs

Traumatic neuritis: situation usually due to an incorrect intramuscular injection

Sometimes present AFP:

Pott’s disease: which is tuberculosis infection of the spinal vertebrae

TB meningitis and all forms of meningitis: meningitis is any infection of the spinal cord cover (encephalitis is an infection of the brain)

Osteomyelitis: any bone infection, namely of the arm or leg

Hypokalemic paralysis: weakness due to low potassium in the blood (this situation often happens during diarrhea and is quickly reversible)

Hypotonia: loss of muscle tone due to some other cause

© Fernando Costa Silva, 1999