Washington Post
by Lindsey Bever

When Orville Young ran up to his mother, Elaine Young, to give her the mail, she noticed he was using his non-dominant hand. Although a seemingly insignificant detail, it made the Minnesota mom stop and think — her then-3-year-old son had developed a cough and a runny nose over the Fourth of July holiday, but she and Orville’s then-6-year-old sister were sick, too, so she assumed that Orville had simply caught their cold. It was not until nearly two weeks later — when everyone else was on the mend and Orville had come down with a fever — that she started to worry… Marc Patterson, a pediatric neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, told The Post that, like polio, AFM is caused by enteroviruses — a collection of viruses that typically cause mild symptoms, such as stomach problems, or no symptoms at all.

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Context:  Marc Patterson, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic neurologist.  Dr. Patterson's research and practice are focused on rare diseases in children, including:

• Neurogenetics and developmental disorders
• Neurometabolic disorders in general
• Niemann-Pick disease, type C
• Other lysosomal diseases (including glycoproteinoses)
• Mitochondrial cytopathies
• Congenital disorders of glycosylation

He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. You can read more about Dr. Patterson's medical research here.

Contact:  Susan Barber Lindquist, Duska Anastasijevic

Tags: AFM, Dr. Marc Patterson, polio-like condition, Uncategorized, Washington Post