The phrase "afflicting anyone" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the act of causing pain, suffering, or distress to someone.
Example: "The disease has been afflicting anyone who comes into contact with the contaminated water."
Alternatives: "causing harm to anyone" or "burdening anyone".
One Virus, Two Diseases Shingles, or herpes zoster, can afflict anyone who has had chickenpox.
Another is viral meningitis, the most common form, and it can afflict anyone.
In other words, the two emotional states that are sure not to afflict anyone who sees this show.
And a short video is even scarier — particularly as the creature's ability to bore down and settle in may well afflict anyone who spends time outdoors.
There is sometimes a generic quality to movies about addiction, perhaps because of the leveling power of the disease, which can afflict anyone, regardless of background.
The curse of overconfidence afflicts anyone who believes themselves to be knowledgable, including those who hold that belief because it's true.
Although, as Macy points out, Disproportionate E-Mail Response Syndrome can afflict anyone, I suspect men are more often the terser sex; as the German saying goes, "Ein Mann ein Wort — Eine Frau ein Wörterbuch".
Here the swings occurred at various points, each bearing witness to the cosmic pettiness that can afflict anyone in this line of work (or maybe it's just me).
This is what the philosopher John Gray disagrees with and in his review he argued that Pinker was stuck in a contradiction that "afflicts anyone who tries to combine rigorous Darwinism with a belief in moral progress".
In "A Guy Walks into a Bar Car" Sedaris manages to distil the sense of loss that afflicts anyone who's ever had a romantic adventure offered up on a plate, and failed to tuck in.
