Michelle Hinman's List: Polio

• viral, infectious disease
• Different types of paralysis may occur, depending on the nerves involved
• Spinal polio is the most common form, characterized by asymmetric paralysis that most often involves the legs
• endemic pathogen
• . In immune individuals, IgA antibodies against poliovirus are present in the tonsils and gastrointestinal tract, and are able to block virus replication;
• highly contagious via the fecal-oral

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• . It affects movement of the muscles and causes inflammation of the nerve
• When spinal neurons die, Wallerian degeneration takes place, leading to weakness of those muscles.
• finally completely paralyzed
• The virus may affect muscles on both sides of the body, but more often the paralysis is asymmetrical. Any limb or combination of limbs may be affected—one leg, one arm, or both legs and both arms.

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• the virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine.
• Polio can be spread when food or drink is contaminated by faeces.

• Bulbar polio

   

  More extensive paralysis, involving the trunk and muscles of the thorax and abdomen, can result in quadriplegia
• attacks the nerve cells of the brain stem, reducing breathing capacity and causing difficulty in swallowing and speaking
• 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
  

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