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The report, Enterovirus D68–Associated Acute Respiratory Illness — New Vaccine Surveillance Network, United States, July–October,2017 and 2018, is especially welcome by those folks who are already convinced that AFM is associated with EV D68. “The New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) includes study sites that focus on population-based surveillance and data collection on the use and impact of vaccines and the impact of vaccine policies. Before you start thinking that this means a new Enterovirus D68 vaccine is coming out soon, many NVSN studies have nothing to do with vaccines… Considering that we had “only” 33 confirmed cases of AFM in 16 states in 2017 and at least 223 confirmed cases of AFM in 41 states in 2018, the rise in EV-D68 cases seems to correlate with the rise in AFM.

Three lots of Infants’ Ibuprofen Concentrated Oral Suspension have been recalled because the concentration in the bottle might be higher than they it is supposed to be. Although they are supposed to be at a 50mg per 1.25ml concentration, if it is indeed higher, then if you gave your child 1.25ml, they might get more than just 50mg. “To date, Tris Pharma, Inc. has not received any reports of adverse events related to the lots of product that are the subject of this recall. Fortunately, the recall is limited to just 3 lots of  Infants’ Ibuprofen Concentrated Oral Suspension that were made by Tris Pharma, Inc. and sold under the Equate, CVS Health, and Family Wellness brands and sold at Wal-Mart, CVS, and Family Dollar stores.

The antigen-based rapid flu tests that most doctors and clinics use, which give results in 10 or 15 minutes, are also prone to both false positive (you don’t really have the flu, even though your test was positive), and more commonly, false negative (you actually do have the flu, even though your test was negative) results, depending if flu is active at the time. These include “rapid” nucleic acid detection based tests that can be done in a doctor’s office, rapid nucleic acid detection based tests and rapid influenza diagnostic tests that are done in a central lab, PCR tests, and viral cultures. Since most other people don’t need to take Tamiflu, they don’t necessarily need a flu test or a definitive diagnosis of the flu. A diagnosis and treatment decision can be made clinically, without a flu test, remembering that most older, healthy kids don’t need to be treated with Tamiflu.

the CSTE issued a new statement on AFM reporting reaffirming that they “are confident state and local health departments are working closely with doctors to ensure suspected cases are reported. * an MMWR early release, Increase in Acute Flaccid Myelitis — United States, 2018,  will provide details on the first 80 cases of 2018 – but sound similar to what we have learned from outbreaks in 2014 and 2016… * an AFM Task Force has been established to “bring together experts from a variety of scientific, medical, and public health disciplines to help solve this critical public health issue. In addition to this year’s cases, there were: * 120 confirmed cases in 34 states in 2014 – with most of the cases being reported in California (24), Colorado (10), Utah (6), Massachusetts (9), Virginia (5), Indiana (5), and Illinois (4)