A 42-year-old member asked:
will poliomyelitis kill me?
2 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in

Dr. Carlo Hatem answered
Pulmonary Critical Care 25 years experience
Usually not: In more than 90% of cases, polio does not affect the brain or spinal cord. Complete recovery is then expected. However, when the brain an spinal cord are affected, chances of death increase, but recovery with disability is more common than death.
6028 viewsReviewed >2 years ago

Dr. James Ferguson answered
Pediatrics 46 years experience
? today ?: Most patients would have this gut virus & recover without problems. If/when the few that developed myelitis (an attack of the nervous system causing injury to nerves) the outcome was variable. It could paralyze a limb or the breathing muscle. Survival depended on complications/recovery.Although vaccination has eliminated the problem in North America it persists in parts of the world & could return
781 viewsAnswered >2 years ago
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Similar questions
CA
A 23-year-old member asked:
How can a person catch poliomyelitis?
2 doctor answers • 3 doctors weighed in

Dr. James Ferguson answered
Pediatrics 46 years experience
Exposure to virus: The oral secretions of an infected patient are contageous before the onset of symptoms & up to two weeks. The patients stool will contain virus for weeks. You can be exposed to droplets of a cough& the virus can be active for days at room temperature on surfaces. Touch it & touch your mouth & you are exposed. It is a human to human only germ, no pets or insects.
6274 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
A 46-year-old member asked:
How can poliomyelitis be transmitted?
2 doctor answers • 3 doctors weighed in

Dr. James Ferguson answered
Pediatrics 46 years experience
Oral secretion/stool: The virus is active in the oral secretions of an infected patient from shortly before the onset of symptoms for up to 2 weeks. It is excreted in the stool for several weeks after the onset of illness. The virus is stable for days at room temperature. Contact with any viral material on hands or inhaled as droplets can pass the infection.
6274 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
CA
A 44-year-old member asked:
What types of poliomyelitis are there?
4 doctor answers • 7 doctors weighed in

Dr. James Ferguson answered
Pediatrics 46 years experience
3 strains 5 outcomes: There are 3 strains of the virus. Infected people can have 5 basic outcomes. 90-95% are asymptomatic, showing no illnes.Abortive illness is a brief flu like process. Nonparalytic polio is longer & marked by neck&spine rigidity but no parylisis.Paralytic polio adds paralysis to the symptoms & some die. Some survivors of paralytic polio have a post polio syndrome (new weakness) 30-40 yrs later.
6274 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
A 34-year-old member asked:
Who is most at risk from poliomyelitis?
2 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in

Dr. James Ferguson answered
Pediatrics 46 years experience
Unimmunized: Maternal antibodies often protect a baby for their first weeks, after which they are at risk. Mortality and degree of disability was greater after the age of puberty when the disease was prevalent. Death often came within the first two wks.
6274 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
A 34-year-old member asked:
What can you tell me about poliomyelitis?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in

Dr. Bennett Machanic answered
Neurology 52 years experience
Polio: Poliomyelitis is mostly eradicated in the modern world due to vaccines, and the disease exists mainly in feudal and primitive countries such as iran. It is caused by a virus which passes into the GI tract and then enters the spine. It affects the nerve cell body causing severe focal weakness and muscular atrophy, but can allow prevent breathing.
5744 viewsAnswered >2 years ago
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Last updated Mar 1, 2017
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