How is polio diagnosed?
Along with a complete physical examination and medical history, doctors will take cultures from the throat and stool, and sometimes blood levels and cerebrospinal fluid, looking for poliovirus.
How is polio spread?
The virus often spreads due to contact with infected feces. This is often caused by poor hygiene, especially hand washing. This can also happen from eating or drinking contaminated food or water.
It can also spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes infected droplets into the air.
People with the virus can pass the virus in their stools for several weeks. People are most contagious just before symptoms appear and soon after they appear.
Who had polio?
It is estimated that there are around 120,000 people in the United Kingdom who survived polio when they were younger.
Famous people who have had polio include Mary Berry, the chef, Neil Young, the musician, John Mitchell, the singer, and Donald Sutherland, the actor, Francis Ford Coppola, the director, and David Steakie, the historian.
What is the treatment and can you recover from polio?
There is no specific treatment for people who become infected. Treatment focuses on relieving symptoms by prescribing pain relief, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
Patients are often advised to eat a special diet, engage in minimal activity, and use hot packs or heating pads for muscle aches.
Severe symptoms of paralysis may require mobility aids, such as braces, canes, and wheelchairs. Patients may also need respiratory assistance, such as supplemental oxygen or ventilator and physical or occupational therapy.
Some people who have recovered from a mild seizure develop post-polio syndrome, which can lead to constant fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle contraction, and muscle and joint pain.
Where does poliomyelitis come from?
Carved slabs from Ancient Egypt around 1500 BC show a priest with a withered foot using a cane, suggesting that polio has been circulating for thousands of years, but was first described in the medical literature by British physician Michael Underwood in 1789
The virus was never considered a major problem until the late 1800s, when outbreaks began to appear in industrialized areas. The first significant outbreak occurred among children in Vermont, USA in 1894.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Europe and North America looked for large outbreaks in the summer, and parents were advised to keep children away from public places such as amusement parks, swimming pools and beaches.
Severe outbreaks are thought to be caused by improved hygiene, which stops exposure of young children, leaving them at greater risk later in childhood.
When did the UK start vaccinating people against polio?
Major epidemics in the 1940s and 1950s accelerated vaccination programs, and by 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk had developed the first polio vaccine.
It was immediately adopted by Britain and in 1961 the United Kingdom switched to an oral vaccine, which is often given on the tongue or on a sugar cube.
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