Effects of the Poliovirus: 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

With the last outbreak of Polio in the US being in 1979, many today have no recollection of the terror of this disease. The disease primarily infected children, and there seemed to be no pattern to who succumbed to it. No one could feel safe. Polio as a disease presents such horrors that even those who overcome it once can be plagued by its aftereffects in later life. Before vaccines, single outbreaks could devastate entire communities. One outbreak

Misinformation about polio vaccine and political unrest has been cited as the main challenges holding back the global goal of achieving a polio-free world, a study has revealed.

The last cases of naturally occurring paralytic polio in the United States were in 1979, when an outbreak occurred among the Amish in several Midwestern states. From

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.

In the late 1950s, several groups of researches and scientists were developing some vaccines against polio. At that time, polio was still an epidemic worldwide disease. One of these vaccines, made by Dr. Hilary Koprowski MD (1916-2013) was used to test it on millions of people in Africa, after first being trailed in the USA. The vaccine virus was grown in tissue cultures taken from macaque monkeys before being introduced to millions of people , who were largely living in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo (now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1957 to 1960.

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.

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.

When hygienic conditions were poor polio attacked infants. The disease was spread by contaminated water and contact with fecal contamination. Many infants died when the conditions were poor. But as conditions improved the virus spread differently. It was spread more through playmates and family members, the contamination came from the

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.

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

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 90% to 95% of infections cause no symptoms.[1] Another 5 to 10% of people have minor symptoms such as: fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, neck stiffness and pains in the arms and legs.[1][2] These people are usually back to normal within one or two weeks. In about 0.5% of cases there is muscle weakness resulting in an inability to move.[1] This can occur over a few hours to few days.[1][2] The weakness most often involves the legs but may less commonly involve the muscles of the head, neck and diaphragm. Many but not all people fully recover. In those with muscle weakness about 2% to 5% of children and 15% to 30% of adults

After replication in the mouth and intestine, polio virus spreads through the body via the blood. Polio virus is contained in the Peyer’s patches of the small intestine. Transmission to the central nervous system and neuronal cell destruction is seen in a small number of infected individuals.