What is Poliomyelitis?
Poliomyelitis, also called polio, is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by three types of poliovirus. The poliovirus is a virus most recognized for its destruction to the nervous system causing paralysis. The majority of individuals who are infected with polio, however, have no symptoms and few have mild symptoms. Of those persons that do acquire the infection, 2 percent or fewer may develop paralytic disease. Since the advent of the polio vaccine during the early 1950s, infections from the poliovirus have nearly been eradicated. • In 1952, there were nearly 58,000 known cases of polio in the United States. Over 1/3 of these individuals developed paralytic polio. • Of the 1/3 infected with paralytic polio, 3,000 died. • In the US, there have been no known infectious, or “wild,” cases of polio since 1979. In countries that are poor, underdeveloped, and do not have access to the vaccine, polio is still a concern especially for infants and children. The World Health Organizatio
