Doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital are advising parents to be aware of a different kind of virus that is expected to peak in the fall of 2020.

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a rare, but serious, illness that affects the nervous system, mostly in children between the ages of 3 to 10, health officials said.

“Acute flaccid myelitis first emerged in the fall of 2014,” said Marissa Vawter-Lee, MD, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s.

Cincinnati Children’s health officials said the hospital is one of the national sites working with the Centers for Disease Control to get answers.

“For parents, I don’t think this is something you need to be at home worrying about all the time, but you should having a basic understanding of what specifically to look out for in your child,” said Ben Kerrey, MD, attending physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine, at Cincinnati Children’s.

But, even with those measures in place, we want parents to be aware of what AFM looks like should their child have symptoms,” said Vawter-Lee