Symptoms 1. Sub-clinical Infection
- Headache - slight Fever - Sore, red throat - General Discomfort -Vomiting Symptoms last up to 72 Hours 2. Non-Paralytic Poliomyelitis -Fever -Sore throat in the absence of upper respiratory infection -Headache -Vomiting -Fatigue -Abnormal Reflexes - Problems with swallowing/breathing -back and neck pain and stiffness, particularly neck stiffness with forward flexion of the neck - arm and leg pain/stiffness -muscle tenderness and spasms Symptoms last up to Two weeks 3. Paralytic Poliomyelitis - loss of reflexes -severe spasms and muscle pain -loose and floppy limbs, sometimes on just one side of the body, this is due to the weakness which results from the involvement of the spine -sudden paralysis -deformed limbs a. Spinal polio - most common, attacks the nerve cells in the spinal cord, which leads to paralysis of the muscle in the arms, legs, and the muscles that control breathing. Children under 5 years old are likely to have a single extremity paralysis while adults paralysis of both legs or both arms is common. b. Bulbar polio - affects the motor neurons in the brainstem, which affects the ability to breathe, speak, and swallow. c. Bulbospinal polio - a combination of spinal polio and bulbar polio that affects breathing, swallowing, heart function, or causes paralysis of the arms and the legs. Full Paralysis can occur but very rare 4. Post-Polio Syndrome - continuing muscle and joint weakness -muscle pain that gets worse -becoming easily exhausted or fatigued -muscle wasting, also called muscle atrophy -trouble breathing and/or swallowing -sleep related breathing problems -becoming easily cold or -new onset of weakness in previously uninvolved muscles |
TransmissionThe Polio virus is a disease that only infects humans. It is a very contagious disease spread through person-to person contact. The virus enters the body through the mouth and lives in an infected person's throat and multiplies in the intestines. The infected person spreads the disease by the contact of its feces with other people. They can also spread polio through little droplets of their sneeze and cough. Uninfected people can get the disease if they have feces in their hands and put their hands in their mouths. People can also get Polio if they put their mouths on a toy that has been contaminated in feces. A virus can live in the infected person's feces for many weeks, and the person can spread the virus before or after the symptoms appear. People can also get infected by the food and drinks that they consume. The feces that go down the sewage, which also makes some countries supply of water, can get into the water. It all varies on the sanitation and hygiene of the environment. Everyone was in danger of getting Polio, no matter how clean their hands were. There were many people that were infected with the disease, and they showed no symptoms, silently infecting thousands of other people before a person starts showing the symptoms. This is why the WHO (World Health Organization) considers a single case of Polio Paralysis being an epidemic. Every summer, many parent's were frightened that their children were going to get Polio because during the summer, things get contaminated fairly quickly, with all of the children outside and sweat being let down everywhere. Sickness and germs spread very quickly during these months, because the sanitation and hygiene level is very bad compared to all of the other times of the year. |
Symptoms and Transmission
Image to the right: Child in the last stages of polio, in the Iron Lung, with a 75% chance of actually dying in it.