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TORONTO — Cases of a rare polio-like condition have begun turning up in some Canadian children, following reports of dozens of cases in the U.S. in recent weeks.

Known as acute flaccid myelitis, the condition causes muscle weakness in one or more limbs, and typically occurs after some kind of viral infection.

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Dr. Jeremy Friedman, pediatrician-in-chief at the Hospital for Sick Children, wouldn’t give an exact number, but said doctors at the Toronto hospital have seen less than 20 cases of limb-based paralysis since the beginning of September — with about a dozen of them confirmed as acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.

That figure may seem small, but Friedman said Sick Kids normally sees only about two cases of AFM a year and the condition carries an annual incidence risk of about one case per million children.

“The way that it presents in children is with a pretty sudden weakness or paralysis of one or more of their limbs,” he said Monday. “So maybe an arm or maybe a leg or maybe an arm and a leg, and in this particular acute flaccid myelitis, it’s usually on one side.”