People who recover from the initial attack of polio often live for years without further signs or symptoms. The onset of late effects varies widely but typically begins at least 15 years after the initial diagnosis.
Can post-polio syndrome be cured?
There’s currently no cure for post-polio syndrome (PPS), so treatment focuses on helping you manage your symptoms and improving your quality of life. People with the condition are often treated by a team of different healthcare professionals working together.
How does polio affect you later in life?
Physical symptoms may emerge 15 years or more after the first polio infection. These new symptoms are called the ‘late effects of polio’. They include new muscle weakness, joint and muscle pain and fatigue.
Does polio stay in your body forever?
The symptoms tend to get gradually worse over many years, but this happens very slowly and treatment may help slow it down further. Post-polio syndrome is rarely life-threatening, although some people develop breathing and swallowing difficulties that can lead to serious problems, such as chest infections.
How long do people with post-polio syndrome live? – Related Questions
Does post-polio syndrome affect memory?
There have been consistent reports of cognitive deficits (83) in PPS including word finding difficulties (84), poor concentration, limited attention, memory impairment (85), and mood disturbances (86). The non-motor aspects of PPS are often under evaluated despite their considerable quality of life implications (87).
How does post-polio affect the body?
Most often, polio survivors start to experience gradual new weakening in muscles that were previously affected by the polio infection. Some individuals experience only minor symptoms while others develop visible muscle weakness and atrophy.
Does polio affect the brain?
Autopsies in some polio patients have found damage to the brainstem and motor cortex as well as to spinal motor neurons. Alternatively, polio may have spared the motor cortex, but the cortex reorganized in different ways to compensate for the loss of spinal motor neurons.
Can you get polio again?
Answer: The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that more than 440,000 polio survivors in the United States may be at risk for post-polio syndrome (PPS), a condition that strikes polio survivors decades after they’ve recovered from an attack of the poliomyelitis virus.
Can old people catch polio?
Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. However, anyone of any age who is unvaccinated can contract the disease. There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.
Which signs are indicative of post-polio syndrome?
Starting about 15 to 40 years after the initial infection, people affected by PPS can begin experiencing a set of health problems such as: Muscle weakness. Feeling tired (mental and physical fatigue) Joint pain.
How many polio survivors are still alive?
There is no central system for reporting post-polio syndrome, but it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are survivors of polio in the United States and have mild to severe symptoms.
Can you get polio if vaccinated?
No, the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) cannot cause paralytic polio because it contains killed virus only.
Does the polio vaccine last for life?
It is not known how long people who received IPV will be protected against polio, but they are most likely protected for many years after a complete series of IPV.
Is polio back in the US 2022?
In late July 2022, a case of paralytic poliomyelitis, caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, was confirmed in an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County, New York. The infection was not travel- related. One case of paralytic polio is considered an outbreak.
When did they stop vaccinating for polio?
The oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) is a weakened live vaccine that is still used in many parts of the world, but hasn’t been used in the United States since 2000.
