Poliomyelitis – A Brief Overview
Michael Underwood described the paralytic symptoms of poliomyelitis first in 1789, a disease of spinal cord inflammation. Since then, numerous outbreaks have been documented throughout Europe in the early 19th century, and the first outbreak of the disease in the United States appeared in 1843. Although the disease is easily transmitted amongst children, the average age of those afflicted with polio has been steadily rising over the past few decades. The 1952 epidemic in the United States was considered one of the worst, with over 21 thousand paralytic cases reported out of over 58 thousand total. (CDC). Iconic images of the polio epidemic of the 1900s often include large rooms with arrays of iron lung cages
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The virus then replicates in the pharynx and gastrointestinal tract, and can remain in the throat and in the stool for approximately a week prior to the onset of symptoms. Viral spread inside the body is facilitated by the local lymph nodes and the bloodstream. By access and reach to motor neurons in the central neuron system, viral replication in the brain stem and spinal cord may lead to cellular destruction and manifestations of paralytic symptoms. The common incubation period for poliomyelitis ranges from 3 to 35 days (CDC). Three different subtypes of polio exist, named PV1, PV2, PV3, in order to distinguish between different capsid proteins protecting the viral RNA (Singh 2013). However, all three strains present the same symptoms. Being immune to one subtype does not lend immunity to other subtypes. PV1 is the most common form associated with paralysis (Singh …show more content…
Soon thereafter, a movement to eradicate the disease worldwide began. Data from the CDC showed that the use of the Salk inactivated vaccine in the mid-1950s decreased the cases of polio from approximately 20 thousand cases to nearly 2500, and that a live oral polio vaccine (OPV) administered in the 1960s nearly eradicated the disease in the United States, with the last indigenous case reported in the 1980s (CDC). Many countries around the world today have been declared polio-free, and only a handful of countries remain to completely eradicate the disease. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a collaborative of multiple international health organizations, is the centralized effort to eradicate polio
In the United States there was a vicious enemy everyone feared. In the 1950s the United States was under attack by the ruthless Poliomyelitis virus. Americans lived in constant fear of their children contracting this horrible virus that left many children paralyzed. During the outbreaks in the 1950s foundations were created to fund research and create awareness to help find a way to eradicate the virus. Americans become focused on doing anything in their power to fight this virus off. Jonas Salk’s Exploration of Medicine and research led to the creation of the Polio vaccine that united the country, prevented further outbreaks, and introduced a new form of treatment which has limited the fatality of polio infections today.
Polio, formerly known as poliomyelitis, an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause temporary or permanent paralysis. A debilitating disease that was once the affliction of our very own republic. David Oshinsky’s Polio: An American Story chronicles polio’s progression in the United States, a feat it does quite well throughout the course of the novel.
One of the other notable important advances was the “Conquest of Polio” this disease usually caused paralysis in the people who contracted the virus. Back then there...
Poliomyelitis was the term used by doctors to describe the condition in which the gray (polios) anterior matter of the spinal chord (myelos) was inflamed (-itis). Until a cure was discovered, no one had the slightest idea where "polio" had come from or why it paralyzed so many children. People learned later that, oddly enough, it was the improved sanitary conditions which caused children to be attacked by the virus. Since people were no longer in contact with open sewers and other unsanitary conditions which had exposed them to small amounts of the polio virus as infants, when paralysis is rare, the dis...
Poliomyelitis is a virus that infects the nerves of the spinal cord, and brain which leads to paralysis and or death (Piddock, 2004). Poliomyelitis is best known today as Polio, and Infantile Paralysis. Tonsillectomy polio would take over the lymph nodes in order to spread the infection throughout the body, leading to muscle paralysis in the limbs, and in some cases respiratory failure. Bulbar polio was a much more severe form, it affected the top of the spinal cord which caused paralysis and inability to swallow fluids (Rifkind, 2005). Polio was transmitted through ingesting materials contaminated by the virus found in feces. Children would play in public swimming pools, and ingest the contaminated water which lead to infection (Piddock, 2004). After the person ingested the virus, it would travel their intestinal tract, and eventually compromise their lymph nodes, making them unable to fight off the virus. Symptoms were like those of the flu, such as fever, headache, and upset stomach. The minority of people were able to let the virus run its course and it would be passed through their feces like any other virus. Others weren’t so lucky, those with compromised immune systems were unable to fight off the virus, the lymph nodes would fail to protect the nervous system causing paralysis once it reached the spinal cord (Piddock, 2004). Poliomyelitis has since then been eliminated in the United States because of the polio vaccine that is giv...
Many people, mainly kids suffered from polio, which is a disease that causes the child to become paralyzed. This disease was feared greatly at the time, until Dr. Jonas Salk created a vaccination for the disease in 1952. Within six years, the vaccine brought the disease under control. Everybody was really excited for this new vaccination. There are many pictures from the 50s with Dr. Salk himself giving the vaccination to kids. The March of Dimes foundation took many photos; one of the many is of a young boy with his mother, Salk, and a nurse giving the vaccine. This picture is actually his wif...
In 1952, the worst year of the polio epidemic, HeLa cells were used to test the vaccine that protected millions.
Symptoms of this plague are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, and stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs. But even though the polio virus does have symptoms about 90% of people do not experience any symptoms at all, which makes them very susceptible to unknowingly spreading the disease to love ones or strangers playing in his poop. Of those infected with polio only .05% of people come out with any major paralysis. And of the people that have been paralyzed only 5% to 10% will died from the respiratory system being paralyzed. Polio is transmitted from person to person through direct contact to the virus, and because the vast majority of people affected by polio are in developing countries, people don’t wash their hands after handling the disease which provides it another way of transmitting it. And because the disease lives in the intestine for the majority of its life, the only way to directly contact the virus is through stool samples. Doctors can tell that the disease affecting a person is polio through the symptoms and a stool sample. (Who, 2014).
Polios epidemiology can be broken down into its basic definition, causation, and origin. According to the Healthline website “Polio…is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system”. Polio is most commonly found in children younger than five but can also be found in adults as well.This viral disease is caused by the poliovirus that may come in one of three different forms; all of which are part of the enterovirus genus. This virus is spread through direct person-to-person contact, contact with infected mucus or phlegm from the nose or mouth, and contact with infected feces. There are three types of the polio disease which are subclinical infections, non-paralytic, and paralytic. Subclinical is the most common form and accounts for “approximately 95% of polio cases” (Healthline). Patience with this form of Polio may n...
Jonas Salk, a virologist at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), used inactivated viruses (virus particles grown in culture and then killed by a form of heat) to create a polio vaccine. Salk drew blood from about two million children, which the NFIP checked for immunization. Through the collection of many HeLa cells and trial and error, the polio vaccine was ready in a year.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Researchers were unable to identify what caused Polio to spread. It seemed to be more common in cleaner environments, unlike other diseases. Polio was found more often in the middle class rather than the poor. One reason that the polio virus was so difficult to discover, was because it wasn’t a bacteria and because most microscopes couldn’t detect the microbial agent. Another problem that created difficulties for scientists, was that the researchers couldn’t discover how the virus got
Moreover polio is a deadly disease that is caused by a highly contagious virus entering the nervous system in the brain or spinal cord causing temporary or permanent paralysis. There are three
Dawson, Liza. "The Salk Polio Vaccine Trial of 1954: Risks, Randomization and Public Involvement in
It is without a doubt that polio has majorly impacted the lives people all around the globe but it also did socially and culturally. The nervous system appears to be complex as it plays a crucial role in how the human body functions and with paralysis happening, that prevented the infected people from doing normal activities that may require physical movement which could limit daily interactions with others. With polio being easily transmitted from one person to another, healthy people tend to stay away from those who are sick. In the American culture, various perspectives were brought up as to if polio would potentially interfere with civil liberties, public safety, and even religious beliefs.
When hygienic conditions were poor polio attacked infants. The disease was spread by contaminated water and contact with fecal contamination. Many infants died when the conditions were poor. But as conditions improved the virus spread differently. It was spread more through playmates and family members, the contamination came from the nose and throat. By the early 1950s, twenty-five percent of paralytic cases occurred in people 21 years old or older.