A Brief Look at Poliomyelitis

Nobody has ever discovered completely how it is that polio is spread. The best evidence suggests that the virus is excreted in the stool and passed through hand to hand or hand to mouth contact by people who do not wash their hands properly or often enough. It was during the first few years of the fifties and many years before then, that health department officials

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord and the brain stem resulting in paralysis (Document One). Polio is caused by the poliovirus, but it is unknown how this virus is acquired. The virus enters the digestive tract and stays in the intestines for up to eight weeks, and then attacks the lymphatic system, the blood stream and eventually travels to the brain and spine (Document Four). Once it is infected in one’s body, the disease is highly contagious and can be spread through contact of saliva, food, germs, or feces (Document Two). “The poliovirus causes most of its infections in the summer and fall. At one time, summer epidemics of polio were common and greatly feared” (Document Four). This may

All three strands attack the nervous system and the digestive tract, making fecal matter and vomit infectious. Polio may also be contracted through contaminated food or water. Due to the highly infectious nature of the poliovirus, epidemics were rampant in poor communities and among young children attending school. Epidemics swept the nation during the 1930s, 20s and 10s. People lived in fear of their children contracting such a harmful illness. Schools and swimming pools were closed in order to prevent the spread of the virus (Last). Mothers were warned against breastfeeding, as the virus had the potential to be spread through breast milk

Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a disease caused by the contraction of the poliovirus. Like influenza, smallpox and cholera, polio is a viral infection. This means that it is a disease caused by the spread of a virus. It spreads rapidly, and usually through person-to-person contact. In addition, this virus can also be distributed through foods or drinks contaminated by infected fecal matter. Although polio is deadly, sometimes, contractors of polio do not show any symptoms. The

The disease poliomyelitis is more commonly known by its alternative name “polio.” The history of this disease dates back into prehistory, but major polio epidemics were not known before the twentieth century. The first clinical description of this disease was provided by a British physician named Michael Underwood, in which he described the disease as debility of the lower extremities. In the 1880s major epidemics started to occur in Europe, then made its way soon after into the United States. The first report of multiple cases was recorded in 1843 and described an outbreak that happened in Louisiana in 1841. The next large outbreak was in Boston in 1893 where there were 26 cases of poliomyelitis. The following year was the first recognized epidemic in the United States which occurred in Vermont with 132 total cases, including 18 deaths. By 1907 there were approximately 2,500 cases of polio reported in New York City alone. By 1910, epidemics of polio were regular events throughout the developed world, mostly in cities during the warmer months. In 1916 there were over 27,000 cases including more than 6,000 deaths due to polio in the United States, with more than 2,000 deaths occurring in New York City alone. Poliomyelitis hit its peak in the 1940s and 1950s; it paralyzed or killed more than half a million people per year.

Poliomyelitis, also commonly known as polio, is a viral infection that, at one point was virtually eradicated in the US (SOURCE). The last major epidemic of polio was in the early 1950's (SOURCE). Polio was characterized in one of three ways: nonparalytic

Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus and is spread from person to person through faecal-oral transmission which means; stool entering the mouth or consumption of food containing stool from an infection person. The poliovirus resides in the intestinal tract and mucus in the nose and throat. Contact with infected respiratory secretions or even saliva can cause poliovirus transmission. This mode of transmission is known as oral-oral transmission. Polio became prevalent in the United States of America (U.S) in the 1940s and 1950s.this was followed by outbreaks of the disease that crippled tens of thousands in North America. Polio eradication is aimed at reducing the global incidence of polio to zero through deliberate efforts to a point that it requires no further control. Polio eradication is to be achieved through interruption of endemic transmission of poliovirus through vaccination. This saw the wide use of the inactivated polio virus (IPV) that was administered orally (OPV); oral polio vaccine.

Polio or poliomyelitis was one of the most frightening diseases to parents and their children in the early 20th century. Polio has since been researched and eradicated in many countries but still continues to be a problem in others.

Poliomyelitis is a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis. Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. The virus spreads by direct person to person contact. For example contact with infected mucus or phlegm from the nose or mouth. Some symptoms are sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, headache, and stomach pain. The virus enters through the mouth and nose. It multiplies in the throat and intestinal tracts and then is absorbed and spread through the blood and lymph system. The time from being infected with the virus to developing symptoms of disease can range from 5 - 35 days.

Polio is a viral infectious disease that affects many systems of the body and can result with the patient being paralyzed. Majority of the cases had no symptoms and it ran rampant in the U.S during 1952. It mostly affected children, and was a public epidemic, with nearly 58,000 cases being confirmed in a year. Most scientific research about the disease led to dead ends and the clinical trials of earlier polio vaccine left children dead and some of them

Poliovirus in the nervous system leads to paralytic polio—the most devastating form of the disease. The onset of paralysis can be rapid, but the severity depends on the number of neurons affected. There is no cure for the disease, and victims may be left with permanent consequences from their illness. Post-polio syndrome may affect polio survivors, even those with benign initial manifestations, years after recovery from their initial insult. Although rarely life-threatening, post-polio syndrome results in weakening of previously affected muscles causing significant interference with the individual's ability to function independently.

Polio is a very contagious disease that is caused by a virus, Poliovirus, which affects the nervous system (Johnson). According to the article Poliomyelitis, Polio transmits through fecal matter and once viral reproduction is established, poliovirus multiplies in specialized cells that are in the intestines. They enter the blood stream to take over the central nervous system, where it spreads along nerve fibers. When they finally multiply in the nervous system, they can destroy nerve cells which activate skeletal muscles. Nerve cells can’t revive, and the affected muscles lose their job due to a lack of nervous enervation. Muscles of the legs are affected more than the arms and extensive paralysis, involving the trunk and muscles of the thorax and abdomen, can result in quadriplegia. Severe cases usually makes it harder for the body to breath, which in turn causes difficulty in swallowing and talking (Poliomyelitis). Once a person receives Polio, there is no visible way of treating it as doctors can only treat the symptoms as the disease slowly kills the body (Johnson). However, it can be prevented before a person receives it by getting the polio vaccine. Because of the vaccine, outbreaks have been reduced significantly in the U.S.

The polio virus helped to lay the road for the sanitation reform because it was transmitted by fecal-oral route. During the incubation phase of 7 to 14 days, replication occurred in the pharynx and intestines before initiating an immune response. Donna Wheeler (2011), identified three subtypes of polio: abortive, nonparalytic, and paralytic. Abortive polio symptoms are described as flu-like symptoms and nonparalytic polio resembles viral meningitis. Paralytic polio, on the other hand resulted in muscle pain that could eventually result in

Polio is an infectious disease that has killed and paralyzed many people (Birth of Jonas Salk and the death of polio in India). It has taken the lives of

The poliovirus is one of the most transmittable and most contagious viruses that the human population has come in contact with.  The structure of the poliovirus allows it to be able to bind to motor neuron cells within a host’s body and reproduce quickly. Like all virus’s, the poliovirus