What are the symptoms for polio in a child?

Paralysis: Polio is nearly extinct. Only rare cases are now reported in remote areas of the world. The virus attacks the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and brainstem. The child becomes weak or paralysed with loss of muscle. Rare cases affect breathing muscles, and the child has to be on a ventilator. The virus then disappears, but the nerves may be permanently damaged leaving small atrophic legs.

Poliomyelitis: Occurs in perhaps 1-2% of non immune people infected with one of the three aero groups of the polio virus. Most people get no symptoms or mild ones. Polio is an anterior horn cell infection that causes asymmetrical muscle weakness or paralysis with fever. If the respiratory muscles are involved, artificial means for breathing will be needed. During the 1950s, this was the iron lung.