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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]
Accordingly, the rate of paralysis and death due to polio infection also increased during this time. [164] In the United States, the 1952 polio epidemic became the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of the nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. [166]
Moreover, caring for paralyzed children after they left the hospital became the focus by the end of the epidemic. The Rockefeller Foundation helped create a special committee that allocated 75,000 dollars to care for 2000 disabled children each year. [5] The people affected by polio usually experienced quick deaths.
The U.N. agency estimates that 1 in 200 polio cases results in permanent paralysis, usually of the legs. Among children who are paralyzed, up to 10% die when their breathing muscles are paralyzed.
Before vaccines were available in 1955, polio caused 15,000 cases of paralysis in the US each year. The US eliminated the disease in 1979, but unvaccinated travelers can still carry polio in.
This article lists people who had the paralytic form of polio. The extent of paralysis varies from part of a limb to quadriplegia and respiratory failure. The latter was often treated with an iron lung. Around 30–40 years after contracting paralytic poliomyelitis, about 25–40% of cases lead to post-polio syndrome. Symptoms include muscle ...
In extreme cases polio can cause paralysis, usually in the legs, although movement typically comes back within a few weeks or months. However, it can be life-threatening if it paralyses the ...
[2] [3] He contracted polio at the age of six and was paralyzed for life, only able to move his head, neck, and mouth. [4] [5] [6] During a major U.S. outbreak of polio in the early 1950s, hundreds of children around Dallas, Texas, including Alexander, were taken to Parkland Hospital. There, children were treated in a ward of iron lungs.