In 2014 in California, an outbreak of an illness that resembled polio was identified which retrospectively dated back to 2012. It is now called acute flaccid myelitis. All of the affected children (about 59 through July 2015) developed a rapid onset of paralysis in one or more limbs and MRI findings were consistent with injury to the central spinal cord. All of the children had been vaccinated against polio. Some of the children were positive for enterovirus -68, a virus known to be associated with limb paralysis and breathing difficulties. The CDC and researchers are currently trying to definitively determine the cause of this illness although they agree it is not polio.
We know that prednisone is used for a lot of other things, such as for asthma suffers to relax their airways, as an anti-inflammatory and as a immuno-suppressant. Although due for her 6 month immunisations, we could not given them to her as with the prednisone these would potentially mean her immune system could not fight them off, as weak as they are. We also needed to avoid contact with colds and flu and other infectious diseases as if she caught anything it would potentially mean she could catch a more serious case of it. As it is an anti-inflammatory, it cannot be taken with some ibuprofen based pain killers, such as neurofen out here in Australia.