The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) verified reports of nearly 155 children in 34 different states from August 2014 to March 2015. All the kids examined by CDC were those who developed acute flaccid myelitis.

Now a research team headed by scientist from the University of California, San Francisco found the genetic signature of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in half of the California and Colorado children who were diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis.

The findings of the research published online in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases strengthen the link between EV-D68 infection and acute flaccid myelitis.

Researchers for the study analyzed the genetic sequences of EV-D68 in children with acute flaccid myelitis. The results showed that all the kids with acute flaccid myelitis matched to a new strain of the virus, designated strain B1, which emerged in 2010.

Researchers associated with the study said that B1 strain was the predominant circulating strain that was detected during the 2014 EV-D68 respiratory outbreak.

CDC and other state public health laboratories confirmed a total of 1,153 people in 49 states and the District of Columbia that were infected with the respiratory outbreak from mid-August 2014 to January 15, 2015. As per sources familiar with the issue, the virus was for the first discovered in a child.

In addition, the study also included a pair of siblings, both of whom were infected with genetically identical EV-D68 virus, only one of them developed acute flaccid myelitis.

Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Laboratory Medicine, said the study's findings suggest that it is not only the virus that determines what disease one might be suffering from, patients' individual biology also determines it.

"Given that none of the children have fully recovered, we urgently need to continue investigating this new strain of EV-D68 and its potential to cause acute flaccid myelitis", he said.