Essay On Polio

Dbq Essay On Polio
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord and the brain
stem resulting in paralysis (Document One). Polio is caused by the poliovirus, but it is unknown
how this virus is acquired. The virus enters the digestive tract and stays in the intestines for up to
eight weeks, and then attacks the lymphatic system, the blood stream and eventually travels to the
brain and spine (Document Four). Once it is infected in one's body, the disease is highly contagious
and can be spread through contact of saliva, food, germs, or feces (Document Two). "The poliovirus
causes most of its infections in the summer and fall. At one time, summer epidemics of polio were
common and greatly feared" (Document Four). This may
Get more content on HelpWriting.net

Polio Essay
Poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis (more commonly known as polio) is a highly infectious disease, in
which it affect the cells in the central nervous system (CNS). It mainly affect young children, mostly
under the age of 5. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries which have polio present within
the population. Polio virus is most commonly found in area with low standards of sanitation. It
spreads through faecal–oral transmission or through contaminated food and water. The polio virus
works by replicating the motor neurons in the CNS and then destroying the original motor neuron
cells. The virus manifests itself in the throat and the intestines, where the virus multiplies and
spreads to other parts of the body through the use of the bloodstream....show more content...
In cases of non–paralytic polio, the body doesn't become paralytic but, there may be acute stiffness
in the arms and legs. Non–paralytic polio may include symptoms like; fever, sore throat, headache,
nausea and vomiting, fatigue, pain in the back and neck, stiffness in the arms and legs, muscle
tenderness, spasms and in some of the worst cases meningitis which is an infection of the
membranes surrounding the brain. There are three types of paralytic polio, spinal, bulbar and
bulbospinal. Spinal Polio attacks the motor neurons in the spinal cord which results in paralysis in
the arm and legs, it can also cause breathing problems. Bulbar Polio affects the medulla oblongata,
a muscle in the brain responsible for breathing, heart rate. It can lead to problematic health issues
such as poor eyesight, difficulty in swallowing and respiratory issues like breathing problems.
Bulbospinal Polio includes both the symptoms spinal and bulbar polio. There are also cases of
Post–Polio Syndrome which is a cluster of symptoms that affect up to 50% of all polio patients. On
average, the syndrome occurs 35 years after the infection. Symptoms of post–polio syndrome
include; muscle and joint pain that progress throughout the body, muscle atrophy which is shrinking
muscle volume, unexplained exhaustion and swallowing and breathing

Polio Summary
Polio was a deadly disease that struck the United States hard with various epidemic breakouts
throughout the country. There are many books written about the disease and how it was controlled.
Polio is a well–researched topic in today's medical world but in this book, Heather Green Wooten,
takes it one step further. She placed the focus of the book in the south, a place where the disease
struck almost last yet it claimed many lives. It specifies on the state of Texas. In addition to that, she
combined the disease epidemic with the social and economic development of the state in the
twentieth century. The book follows a well–organized chronological order stating by the early cases
of polio and its spread. Then it talks about Franklin D...show more content...
The purpose of the chapter is to provide the readers with some background information. Along
with this, it also shows how panic overtook the American communities. The uncertainty of what
the virus was or where it came from caused a paranoia in many cities. The initial reaction was to
quarantine victims and keep them away from the general public. The spread of the epidemic
from northern states to Texas is accredited, according to Wooten, by the mass immigration into
Texas by residents of other states during the oil industry's boom in Texas in the early twentieth
century. This exposed many people to polio as they moved into cities and the coastal area of
Texas became more and more urbanized. The high standards of American hygene made polio a
death threat. The body did not have the ability of fighting a small dose of the disease as new born
did when hygene in the country was not so clean. By not being exposed to the virus the body did
not produce the adequate antibodies to fight it off. When it struck at a later age the body was
defenseless and so the epidemic started. The result of the urbanization of Texas and the many polio
outbreaks helped the area create many hospitals and lead the fight against polio. The book also
highlights the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also suffered of polio. Wooten describes how the
president acquired the disease and

Post Polio Research Paper
Contamination from poliomyelitis is spread through contact with somebody who as of now has the
ailment or as an aftereffect of poor sanitation where human waste items taint others. The mouth is
the typical pathway of the infection, which then enters the blood framework. Loss of motion
generally to the arms and legs happens from sores to the focal sensory system. These sores happen
when the polio infections start to attack the focal sensory system. Clinical responses to the polio
infections can extend from none to mellow manifestations looking like the normal frosty (cerebral
pain, sore throat, slight fever). These side effects can vanish in a brief timeframe, anywhere in the
range of one to three days. A noteworthy sickness of polio can be...show more content...
That number held firm from the mid–1950s to the early part of the following decade of the 1960s.
By 1992, the quantity of reported cases all through the world dropped to 15,406. In 1991, Peru
was the last nation in the western side of the equator to report an affirmed instance of polio. Since
2001, less than two thousand instances of polio have been accounted for worldwide every year.
There were 414 reported and recorded cases worldwide in 2014, and by mid–2015, that number was
diminished to

The Polio Vaccine Essay
The Polio Vaccine
The discovery of the polio vaccine was an important medical and scientific breakthrough because it
saved many lives since the 1950s. In the summer of 1916 the great polio epidemic struck the United
states. By the 1950s hundreds of thousands of people had been struck by the poliomyelitis. The
highest number of cases occurred in 1953 with over 50,000 people infected with the virus. When
hygienic conditions were poor polio attacked infants. The disease was spread by contaminated water
and contact with fecal contamination. Many infants died when the conditions were poor. But as
conditions improved the virus spread differently. It was spread more through playmates and family
members, the contamination came from the...show more content...
Dean William McEllroy talked Salk into joining the university full–time. Though the school's
research budget was a grant from the American Society for the Study of High Blood Pressure in
the amount of $1,800, he saw the opportunity to do two things. One was to continue the work he
was doing on influenza, second was to begin working with the polio virus. A few months after
arriving in Pittsburgh, Salk was visited by the director of research at the National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis. The director asked Salk if he would be willing to participate in a polio typing
program. "I had no experience working with polio, but it provided me with an opportunity. . ."
Salk said in an interview. This gave Salk a chance to get funding, equipment, a laboratory facility,
and to hire a staff to work for and with him. Salk's previous work gave him the idea that a killed
virus could in fact work when others thought it couldn't. To type the polio virus Salk infected
monkeys with polio by injecting it into them or feeding it to them. If a monkey survived it built up
antibodies to protect against the virus. The monkeys that survived were then given another type of
virus to see if the same antibodies protected against the second type. If it did, it told Salk and his
assistants that the two types were related. If it did not, that told Salk that they were not related.
Eventually

Polio Literature Review
Critical Review – provide a literature review of the public health significance of the health issue
talked about in the case study. Please use 6–8 references and include them in a separate reference
page (750–1000 words).
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease that manifests as a variety of symptoms, the most
severe of which is paralysis which can lead to permanent disability and death. Some people show no
symptoms at all. Children who recover from polio at a young age may develop new symptoms later
in life ("CDC Global Health – Polio – What Is Polio?," n.d.). Polio was considered a disease of
developed countries for much of the 1900s. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, prevalence of
polio in schoolchildren in developing countries across the world was found to be much higher
than in the United States (Modlin, 2010). By 2000, polio has been mostly eradicated around the
world, with the number of cases having fallen by more than 99%. Today, there are only a few
countries that still have new cases of polio each year and the total number of reported polio cases is,
on average, less than 100 each year ("CDC Global Health – Polio – Updates on CDC's Polio
Eradication Efforts – March 18, 2016," n.d.). Vaccinationexists for polio, with two forms currently
in use. The live poliovirus vaccination is more effective and widely used in endemic regions, while
the inactive vaccination is used in areas where polio has been eradicated (Modlin, 2010).
Polio and the history of

Poliomyelitis Essay
Ancient Egyptian paintings and carvings narrate otherwise healthy people with withered limbs and
children walking with the help of canes at a young age.(1) It is theorized that the Roman Emperor,
Claudius was suffered from poliomyelitis because of it, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
Earliest recorded case of poliomyelitis was that of Sir Walter Scott. In 1773 Scott was developed "a
severe teething fever which disabled him of paralysis of his right leg".( 2)
The symptoms of poliomyelitis had been described by many ways. In the early nineteenth century
the disease was known as: Dental Paralysis, Infantile Spinal cord Paralysis, Essential Paralysis of
Children, Regressive Paralysis, myelitis of the Anterior Horns cells, Tephro...show more content...
It invades the human nervous system and can cause complete paralysis in a matter of hours. Humans
are only reservoir. The virus is mostly transmitted by person–to–person spread mainly through the
fecal–oral route , less frequently, by a common vehicle for example, contaminated water or food.It
multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are commonly fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting,
stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs. 1 in 200polio infections leads to irreversible paralysis.
Among those paralyzed polio cases, 5% to 10% die of polio when their breathing muscles become
paralyzed. Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. There is no cure for polio paralysis, it
can only be prevented with multiple doses of two drops of polio
Major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century; localized paralytic polio epidemics
began to appear in Europe and the United States around 1900. The first report of multiple polio
cases was published in 1843 and described an 1841 outbreak in Louisiana.(5)
On Saturday, June 17, 1916, an official announcement was made regarding existence of an epidemic
polio infection in Brooklyn, New York. That year, there were

Poliio Research Paper
Polio is a very contagious disease that is caused by a virus, Poliovirus, which affects the nervous
system (Johnson). According to the article Poliomyelitis, Polio transmits through fecal matter and
once viral reproduction is established, poliovirus multiplies in specialized cells that are in the
intestines. They enter the blood stream to take over the central nervous system, where it spreads
along nerve fibers. When they finally multiply in the nervous system, they can destroy nerve cells
which activate skeletal muscles. Nerve cells can't revive, and the affected muscles lose their job
due to a lack of nervous enervation. Muscles of the legs are affected more than the arms and
extensive paralysis, involving the trunk and muscles of the thorax and abdomen, can result in
quadriplegia. Severe cases usually makes it harder for the body to breath, which in turn causes
difficulty in swallowing and talking (Poliomyelitis). Once a person receives Polio, there is no visible
way of treating it as doctors can only treat the symptoms as the disease slowly kills the body
(Johnson). However, it can be prevented before a person receives it by getting the polio vaccine.
Because of the vaccine, outbreaks have been reduced significantly in the U.S....show more content...
The disease is usually caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses (Pneumonia). Usually the germs can't get
past a healthy body's guards but in a body that is weak, the germs can get by (Pneumonia: Is It
Contagious?). Pneumonia causes inflammation in the lung's air sacs, also known as alveoli
(Normandin). The alveoli fills with fluid making it harder for the person to breathe (Normandin). To
treat Pneumonia, doctors usually use antibiotics as it has a high healing rate in people, although the
type is based on a number of things (Pneumonia – Treatment). Most cases are here, in the United
States (Pneumonia

The Global Eradication of Polio Essays
The Global Eradication of Polio
The possibility of the eradication of polio worldwide is an imminent and exciting prospect as the
"goal" year quickly approaches. In 1988, the World Health Assembly, which governs the World
Health Organization, set the goal of eliminating polio from the world by the year 2010. Many
organizations have joined the effort along with the World Health Organization: the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, Rotary International, Global Health Network, the US
Agency for International Development, National Immunization Day, and the International
Broadcasting Bureau. Together, these "worldwidepolio partners" have implemented a strategy to
completely rid the world of this disease. It is a difficult...show more content...
The poliovirus enters the body through the mouth, and multiplies in the throat and intestines. It may
remain unmanifested for anywhere from four to thirty–five days. Once the virus is in the intestines it
has the potential to spread throughout the body by way of the bloodstream, and infiltrate into the
central nervous system. In the central nervous system, the virus can spread out along the nerve
fibers and begin to destroy the nerve cells, or motor neurons, resulting in limpness in the arms and
legs. This is known as acute flaccid paralysis and this symptom of polio (also a symptom of several
other diseases) is used to uncover new cases which may have been misdiagnosed or not diagnosed
at all (WHO 1999). This is a necessary procedure in that it helps to cover all the bases in the pursuit
of eradicating poliovirus from the earth.
It is important to note that paralysis does not occur in all polio cases. Acute poliomyelitis manifests
itself as a two–phased disease in a small proportion of its victims. The first phase is minor, a
"non–specific febrile illness" (Prevots 1999). All patients with polio experience this phase, and only
a small percentage develops the second phase, "aseptic meningitis and/or paralytic disease" (Prevots
1999). The aseptic meningitis is inflammation, caused by the virus, of the meninges of the

Informative Essay On Polio
Henrietta Lacks is a women who died 62 years ago from an aggressive form of cervical cancer at
Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 but her cells are still alive which are the human cell lines scientists
most commonly used. George Gey is a researcher who researched cancer cell for ten more years and
found the cells from Henrietta Lacks's uterus can keep alive. He was the head of tissue culture at
Johns Hopkin when Henrietta was being treated for cervical cancer and he had been actively trying
to grow an immortal cell line. They were the first human cells which grown in a lab. George Gey
named this sample Hela from the initial letters of Henrietta Lacks' name. Though Gey had the mind
of a scientist and the hands of skilled craftsman, he often got caught up in his experiments without
much thought of the consequences. He relied on his wife named Margaret Grey, who was trained as
a surgical nurse, to take care of the day–to–day details of running a proper lab. More, Mary Kubicek
was the lab assistant which attended an autopsy at...show more content...
This vaccine was then used in a test called Francis Field Trial which led by Thomas Francis. The
test began with some 4.000 children at Franklin Sherman Elementary School In McLean, Virginia.
Because the test need a large number of Hela cells, NFIP found a facility capable of mass–producing
Hela cells. In 1955, Hela cells were the first human cells successfully cloned by Theodore Puck and
Philip Marcus at the University of Colorado. At that time, Hela cells have been used for research
into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other
scientific pursuits. Also, Hela cells have been used in testing how parvo virus infects cells of
humans, Hela, dogs and

Polio Virus Essay
Polio Virus
Introduction
The polio virus which causes poliomyelitis in humans is an enterovirus which belongs to the
picornavirus (small, RNA) family. Polio virus is rapid, acid–resistant, stable, highly tissue specific
and consists of a single–stranded, positive RNA. Polio virus is able to reside in the throat or intestinal
tract of humans. Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious infectious disease which has three strains,
poliovirus 1 (PV1), PV2 and PV3. Polio virus, although rare in developed countries, can be found in
many under–developed countries due to the uncommonness of vaccinations there. Polio is known
as a disease of development. The oldest known record of polio is in an Egyptian stone engraving of a
young priest from 1350...show more content...
Receptor–mediated endocytosis is thought to take the receptor into the cell. Polio virus is tissue
tropic, meaning it replicates only in specific tissue types, generally lymphoid tissue in the pharynx
and intestine. After uncoating, polio virus, which is an RNA virus, takes a single RNA molecule in
its protective capsid. This RNA can be converted directly to a protein in the cytoplasm. The virus
must then replicate its RNA using viral RNA–directed RNA polymerase. After replication of its own
RNA, the virus must package the new RNA into capsids in order to infect more cells.
Transmission
After replication in the mouth and intestine, polio virus spreads through the body via the blood.
Polio virus is contained in the Peyer's patches of the small intestine. Transmission to the central
nervous system and neuronal cell destruction is seen in a small number of infected individuals.
Damage
Polio virus affects humans by a lytic cycle. PV1 which is usually associated with epidemics
causes paralysis and consequently the most deaths. PV2 normally causes meningitis and a less
severe paralysis. PV3 is usually associated with sporadic cases of polio virus. The majority of polio
cases include only diarrhea symptoms or the individual is completely asymptomatic. Five percent of
polio cases show flu–like symptoms of fever, malaise, headache, nausea, sore throat, upset stomach,
and achy muscles. In one percent of

Polio Research Paper
Polio is an infectious disease caused by a special types of viruses. The United States Of America is
still at risk of introducing polio. A polio like illness has recently been discovered in California in
children that produces paralysis like in some polio patients. The last case of polio in The United
States Of America was in 1979. Polio is still a very high problem in Africa and Asia. Polio has also
been traced back almost 6,000 years ago.
Polio is caused by small viruses, RNA viruses to be exact. The viruses are members enterovirus
group of the Picornavirus family. The polio virus is known to attack the nervous system. There are
3 different types of polio viruses. Type one is responsible for about 85% of all paralytic infections.
...show more content...
One of the main symptoms is muscle weakness and/or tiredness. Another symptom would be
vomiting. Another symptom is fatigue Also another symptom can possibly be joint pain. The rest of
the symptoms are headaches, nausea, fever, and sore throat.
If you already have polio there is no cure for it. If you take polio prevention vaccines. There are
three different types of vaccines. If you take theses vaccines the viruses could mutate. If the virus
mutates to where the vaccine doesn't work polio can possibly kill you even faster. You mainly want
to make sure that your kids and parents are vaccinated because they are most likely to get polio and
not survive.
Here are a couple more facts about polio that you might not know. Up to 90% of polio cases don't
even have symptoms. One in two–hundred people get paralysis from this disease. Five to ten percent
of paralyzed patients die. The viruses is found in saliva and feces of all of the patients that have
polio. Children five and under makeup for 50% of the polio cases but any age of people can get
polio. Polio cases have decreased more than 99% since 1988. Polio went from having three–hundred
and fifty thousand to only four hundred and sixteen. The first polio vaccine was made by Jonas Salk
in 1952 to try to prevent polio since there is no

Essay on Polio Vaccine
Poliomyelitis (shortened to polio) has been around for thousands of years, and there is still no cure,
but at the peak of its devastation in the United
States, Dr. Jonas Salk introduced a way to prevent it. Polio attacks the nerve cells and sometimes the
central nervous system, causing muscle wasting, paralysis, and even death. The disease, whose
symptoms are flu like, stuck mostly children, and in the first half of the 20th century the epidemics
of polio were becoming more devastating. Salk, while working at the Virus Research
Lab at the University of Pittsburgh, developed a polio vaccine, and the medical trials to prove its
effectiveness and safety are still being analyzed. Fifty years ago the largest medical experiment in
The use of the dual protocol illustrates both the power and the limitations of randomized clinical
trials. The control trials with the placebo were important to define the vaccine as the product of
scientific medicine, while the observed trials were done to maintain public support for the vaccine.
In 1953, Salk presented his tests of a polio vaccine to the Immunization
Committee, the scientific advisory committee for the NFIP. The test results seemed promising to
Basil O'Connor, as the children had shown no ill effects and the levels of polio antibodies in their
blood had risen. However, several of the senior virologist on the committee questioned the relation of
antibodies to permanent immunity. Despite the virologist's critique, O'Connor believed that his
organization owed it to the volunteers and donors to proceed and called for the planning of a major
field study. O'Connor, in November of 1953, announced that the field trials would begin in the spring
and the observed plan would be used. Within a month, health departments in 38 states had responded,
enthusiastic about the prospect of a vaccine. A few state officials however, questioned the
impartiality of the evaluation run by the foundation, and not by scientists.
Responding to the criticism O'Connor called an meeting of an advisory group to review the
statistical design. When the group convened, it had decided to go strictly with the placebo controlled

Research Paper On Polio
By 1910, a small epidemic of polio became regular especially in cities during the summer months.
The disease was later called infantile paralysis, based on its tendency to affect children. Polio is
caused by one of three types of poliovirus. These viruses spread through contact between people, by
nasal and oral secretions, and by contact with contaminated feces. Poliovirus enters the body through
the mouth, multiplying along the way to the digestive tract, where it further multiplies. About 95%
of all cases display no symptoms. When symptoms appear they are flu–like symptoms that last for a
few days or weeks, such as fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting, back and neck pain, arm and leg
stiffness, muscle tenderness, and muscle spasms. Polio is often recognized because of symptoms
The 1952 polio epidemic became the worst outbreak, of the nearly 58,000 cases reported 3,145
died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. Three years later, Dr. Jonas Salk from
The University of Pittsburgh, became a national hero when he developed the first safe and effective
polio vaccine in 1955 with the support of the March of Dimes. In the two years before the vaccine
was, widely available, the average number of polio cases was more than 45,000. By 1962, that
number had dropped to 910. By 1979, the virus had been completely eliminated across the country.
There is no cure for polio once a person becomes infected. Therefore, treatments include antibiotics,
pain killers, ventilators to help breathing, and moderate exercise. The disease can kill and remains
incurable, but vaccines have assisted in almost total eradication in the world. Polio vaccination in the
United States is still recommended because of the risk of imported cases, children are recommended
to receive the inactivated polio vaccine at 2 months and 4 months of age, and then twice more before
entering elementary

Polio Research Paper
Ocean County College
Department of Biology
The Poliovirus
Submitted By,
Stephen Gorda
Date Submitted: 5–2–12
Course: Biology– 162
Instructor: Prof. Estelle Abstract The poliovirus is one of the most transmittable and most
contagious viruses that the human population has come in contact with. The structure of the
poliovirus allows it to be able to bind to motor neuron cells within a host's body and reproduce
quickly. Like all virus's, the poliovirus...show more content...
The similarity between the poliovirus and already solved plant virus's led to a better understanding
of how the poliovirus can regenerate within a host. Although the virus was similar to other plant
viruses. The poliovirus was covered with more elaborate loops that are the site of monoclonal
antibody escape mutations (Hogle, Chow and 229: 1358–1365Filman, Science). Individual proteins
of the virus particle are produced by proteolytic cleavages from a larger precursor, yet the amino and
carboxy–termini produced by proteolysis are very distinct. By noting this, Hogle and his team were
able to conclude that proteolysis was not just making a lot of proteins from one gene, it is also
controlling the timing of assembly (Hogle, Chow and Filman, Science 229: 1358–1365).
B. Signs and Symptoms: Approximately 95 percent of people who are infected with poliovirus
will not have any symptoms, however, people who are infected and do not have any polio
indicators can still spread the poliovirus. People who become infected with the poliovirus can start
having symptoms as soon as four days after being infected, and not have any symptoms for as many
as thirty five days. This time period between infection and experiencing symptoms is referred to as
"The Incubation Period," which is when the virus begins to multiply within the cells that line the
back of the throat, nose, and intestines("Signs and symptoms of Polio." eMedtv.com. Clinaero Inc.,
2006–2012. Sunday 4–22–12). For the

Essay On Polio

More Related Content

More from Paper Writing Service Superiorpapers (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Essay On Polio