Polio (properly poliomyelitis, and also known as infantile paralysis) is caused by infection of the nervous system by a virus which gains entry through the nasopharynx and breeds in the intestinal mucous lining. It is expelled in the faeces. The bloodstream carries the disease to the nervous system. There the virus attacks the cells lying in the grey matter of the brain and spinal cord, and in a case of very severe infection certain of these nerve cells may be entirely destroyed. This affection of the nerve cells leads to the characteristic symptom of the disease, namely muscular paralysis. A striking feature of the disease is its occurrence in young children, especially in those between the ages of two and four years. It may occur also in adolescence and early adult Life, but is rare after middle age. During an epidemic the virus may attack many people without giving rise to actual paralysis in any part of the body, and it has been found that over 50 per cent of the adult population have the special antibodies against the virus in the blood, showing that they have at some time suffered from a mild or unrecognised attack.
Confirmation of these facts was found in an American epidemic in the 1950s. Amongst twenty-two contacts of a case of infantile paralysis, fourteen were found to have the virus in the faeces. Fourteen of the twenty-two cases developed slight fever, but only one became paralysed. The disease is spread by humancarriers of the virus, who may or may not be ill with the disease. The secretions of the nose and throat are infective during the first ten days of the illness, and spread of the disease mainly takes place from one person to another by what is known as 'droplet infection' (as in sneezing, coughing, talking, etc.), and by the common use of articles recently contaminated by these secretions. The virus may be present also in the faeces of a patient up to three months after his apparent recovery.
The disease may also be spread by infected water, milk or fruit, either by direct handling, or by flies carrying infection from lavatories or sewage. The disease is much more prevalent during the hotter months of the summer, and in the European climate it reaches its maximum frequency in August and September. The incubation period varies between six and ten days, the average being nine days. Infantile paralysis begins suddenly with fever lasting from one to five days, the temperature rising to 102 or 104 degrees. The child is usually flushed and drowsy, but may be very irritable, and vomiting and convulsions may occur. There is headache, with pain in the neck and back, and tenderness of the limbs. The symptoms at this stage are similar to those seen in many other acuteinfectious diseases, though special significance should be attached to severe pains in the limbs and tenderness of the muscles. In one to five days the characteristic signs of paralysis appear in one or more groups, of muscles. In older children and adults the paralysis is usually present within twenty-four hours of the onset. It develops rapidly and appears to have its maximum limit of distribution from the moment it appears. It is, in fact, usually much more widespread at the onset than it is destined to be permanently.
At first all four limbs may appear to be completely helpless, but after some days a rapid recovery occurs from much of the paralysis, so that only one limb may be finally affected. The narrowing down of the initial paralysis begins to appear after the end of the first week, and any muscle which is going to recover its power will have done so before the end of the first month. The muscles which are permanently paralysed become atrophied, or wasted, and in the course of time they tend to become contracted or shortened. This shortening may lead to considerable deformity of the part unless it is prevented by suitable treatment. The paralysis may affect any of the muscles of the body, but those of the leg are far more commonly involved than any others. Research Polio
A vaccine was originally a preparation of cowpox from a cow (whence the name) for protection against smallpox. Today, a vaccine is a preparation of modified pathogens (viruses or bacteria) that is introduced into the body, usually either orally or by a hypodermic syringe, with the view to induce the specific antibody reaction that produces immunity against a particular disease. In 1796, Edward Jenner was the first to inoculate a child (supposedly) successfully with cowpox virus to produce immunity to smallpox. His method, the application of an infective agent to an abraded skin surface, is still used in smallpox inoculation. However, officially vaccinations are only 80% effective, and reviewing the decline of instances of polio and other diseases both before and after inoculations started over the past hundred years reveals a uniformcurve, questioning whether inoculations are effective at all.
The side-effects of many inoculations are similarly dangerous and may induce severe brain damage, for example (since the introduction of the MMR vaccine in the UK for measles, mumps and Rubella, incidences of autism in children rose 400% from 1 in 1000 to 4 in 1000, as the vaccine can rupture the intestine wall allowing proteins to escape into the blood system and damage the brain). The problem for independent thinkers, is that it is impossible to prove or disprove whether an inoculation has succeeded, unless the patient then contracts the disease against which they were inoculated, in which case the inoculation obviously failed. However, in cases where an inoculated patient does not contract a disease who can say with certainty that their own immunity system would not have prevented the disease being contracted without the inoculation.
Vaccines have long been controversial, propagated by propaganda. The original concept was to immunise against smallpox by infecting patients with cowpox. However, there is serious doubt that the original vaccinations were effective at all. During the smallpoxepidemic of 1871, 91.5% of the patients suffering from smallpox at the HighgateSmallpoxHospital in London had been previously vaccinated - while only 90% of the London population as a whole had been vaccinated, and in 1881 96% of the patients suffering from smallpox at the HighgateSmallpoxHospital in London had been vaccinated, while again only 90% of the general population of London had been vaccinated. Despite strong evidence then and now that vaccines are ineffective at all but making profit for their manufacturers, and in many cases are actually very dangerous to the patients to which they are administered, in 1853 the British government introduced compulsory vaccination and popular belief among the less educated population is still one of the effectiveness of vaccines. Research Vaccine
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Polio
