Polio -- formerly called infantile paralysis -- is a viral disease. Polio virus, which usually infects children, multiplies in the intestinal tract and spreads by fecal contamination of food and water, especially where sanitation is poor. The...
Before the introduction of polio vaccine, the U.S. reported 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio each year. Although 95 percent of people infected with poliovirus show no signs of disease, the virus causes permanent paralysis--which can lead...
Epidemics of poliomyelitis have crippled thousands of people across the globe, striking mostly young children with paralysis and muscle weakness. In 1952, in the United States alone, nearly 60,000 cases of poliomyelitis were recorded, with more...
The polio virus is the causative agent of poliomyelitis, one of the most feared diseases of the twentieth century, responsible for crippling thousands of people across the globe, prior to distribution of a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk in the...