The Post Polio Syndrome

Abstract

Poliomyelitis is an inflammatory disease caused by a viral infection of the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord, it is recognized clinically as an acute onset of lower motor neuron paralysis (or paresis) of one or 1 more muscles. Infection is oral and the virus multiplies in the gut for one to three weeks when it is either contained by an immune response or a viraemic phase occurs. The virus is excreted in the faeces for a number of weeks and in saliva for some days. The inactivated polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk has been available since 1955, and the attenuated live oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin in 1962. Paralytic poliomyelitis was a major cause of morbidity and death throughout the world during the first half of the 20th century.