Polio: What are the Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Another name of polio is poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis. It is highly contagious. The least condition is paralysis but it can also cause breathing issues and in some cases it can cause death of the patient.

Polio: What are the Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

In 95% of cases there are no symptoms occurs, and 4% of cases shows symptoms. Due to this polio can be characterizing as asymptomatic and symptomatic. It can be transmit from person to person.

SYMPTOMS:

In most severe cases polio can cause paralysis and death. But in some cases it did not show any symptoms and if the symptoms appear it depends upon the different types of it. In symptomatic, it can be further breaking down into non-paralytic and absorptive polio. 1% of severe form of it occurs in patients causing permanent paralysis.

SYMPTOMS OF NON-PARALYTIC POLIO:

It is also absorptive polio causing flu and symptoms fade away in just few weeks. For example,

1. Headache
2. Fatigue
3. Fever
4. Arm and leg stiffness
5. Sore throat
6. Vomiting
7. Muscle tenderness
8. Meningitis

Symptoms of paralytic polio:

This is seen in very rare cases as the virus enters the motor neurons and damages cells. It affects the area of brain which is important for controlling movements.

1. Severe muscle pain
2. Loss of muscle reflexes
3. Loss of floppy limbs

VACCINES:

These are for example,

1. Inactivated poliovirus (IPV)
2. Oral poliovaccines (OPV)

It’s vaccines and booster doses are highly important.

CAUSES:

This virus is mostly spread by the feces of infected person. It affects the areas with poor sanitation systems. This is very contagious as it can be caused by the direct contact of the infected person. This virus stays in intestine before affecting the other areas of the body. It travels through blood stream.

PREVENTIONS:

It can mainly be prevent through vaccines. From other prevention we can just limit the spread of this virus. For example,

1. Avoiding food and drinks which may be contaminated by the affected patient
2. Check upon the vaccines regularly
3. Make sure to get booster doses
4. Washing hands
5. Cover mouth while cough or sneezing
6. Avoid close contact with the patient

Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan are the countries who still have many cases of this virus.

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