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Poliomyelitis (/ ˌ p oʊ l i oʊ ˌ m aɪ ə ˈ l aɪ t ɪ s / POH-lee-oh-MY-ə-LY-tiss), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. [1] Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; [5] mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe symptoms develop such as headache, neck stiffness, and paresthesia.
The history of polio (poliomyelitis) infections began during prehistory. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century, [1] the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Over millennia, polio survived quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1900s when major epidemics began to occur in Europe. [1]
Paralytic poliomyelitis occurs in less than 1% of poliovirus infections. Paralytic disease occurs when the virus enters the central nervous system (CNS) and replicates in motor neurons within the spinal cord, brain stem, or motor cortex, resulting in the selective destruction of motor neurons leading to temporary or permanent paralysis.
Polio was eliminated in the Americas by 1994. [104] The disease was officially eliminated in 36 Western Pacific countries, including China and Australia, in 2000. [105] [106] Europe was declared polio-free in 2002. [107]
A child receives oral polio vaccine during a 2002 campaign to immunize children in India. Poliovirus. Polio eradication, the goal of permanent global cessation of circulation of the poliovirus and hence elimination of the poliomyelitis (polio) it causes, is the aim of a multinational public health effort begun in 1988, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's ...
Crusader for equality of disabled people, Ducharme contracted polio in 1953. The disease left her a quadriplegic and dependent on a respirator for the rest of her life. [34] Hugh Gallagher: 1933–2004 Author and disability rights advocate, Hugh Gallagher contracted polio at college and subsequently required a wheelchair due to lower-body ...
Poliomyelitis has existed for thousands of years, with depictions of the disease in ancient art. [1] The disease was first recognized as a distinct condition by the English physician Michael Underwood in 1789, [1] and the virus that causes it was first identified in 1908 by the Austrian immunologist Karl Landsteiner.
Post-polio syndrome (PPS, poliomyelitis sequelae) is a group of latent symptoms of poliomyelitis (polio), occurring at about a 25–40% rate (latest data greater than 80%). They are caused by the damaging effects of the viral infection on the nervous system and typically occur 15 to 30 years after an initial acute paralytic attack.