What is polio?
Poliomyelitis, or Polio, is caused by a virus that lives in the throat and intestinal tract. It is spread through contact with the bowel movements of an infected person (for example, by changing diapers). Polio can cause cold-like symptoms, pain and stiffness in the neck, back, and legs, and, in the worst cases, paralysis or death. Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the first half of the 20th Century in the United States. Polio vaccine became available in 1955 and because of vaccination the disease has disappeared from the U.S., and efforts are underway to eliminate polio from the rest of the world as well. It would only take one case of polio from another country to bring the disease back if we were not protected through vaccination.
• Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. • The virus invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. • In some cases, the poliovirus can even cause death. • Poliovirus is a communicable disease which cannot be controlled and therefore must be eradicated.
Polio is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus. The disease can strike at any age, but typically affects children under three. The virus is passed through poor or careless hygiene, entering the body through the mouth, then multiplying inside the throat and the intestines. Once established, the polio virus can enter the bloodstream and invade the central nervous system, spreading along nerve fibers. As it multiplies, the virus destroys the motor neurons that activate muscles. The nerve cells cannot be regenerated and the affected muscles no longer function. Polio paralysis is almost always irreversible. In the most severe cases, polio virus attacks the motor neurons of the brain stem, resulting in difficulty breathing and can result in death. Most children and adults infected with the polio virus suffer only symptoms of a fever; only 1 percent of polio cases result in paralysis. • Why did Rotary choose Polio? During the 1970s, Rotary International began a search to find a glob
