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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]
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.
In the absence of proven treatments, a number of odd and potentially dangerous polio treatments were suggested. In John Haven Emerson's A Monograph on the Epidemic of Poliomyelitis (Infantile Paralysis) in New York City in 1916, [10] one suggested remedy reads: Give oxygen through the lower extremities, by positive electricity.
Despite eradication in recent years, the polio virus is a deadly illness which wreaked havoc in the UK in the 1950s. Scientists have now discovered polio in several sewage samples collected from ...
The virus infects the throat and intestines, and can cause flu-like symptoms. Paralysis from the polio virus is rare. This year, polio cases have been detected in New York state, London and Jerusalem.
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.
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 ...
The vaccine derived from this strain, novel oral polio virus type 2 (nOPV2), was granted emergency licencing in 2021, and subsequently full licensure in December 2023. [75] Genetically stabilsed vaccines targeting poliovirus types 1 and 3 are in development, with the intention that these will eventually completely replace the Sabin vaccines.