Post-polio syndrome ??????
JWissmille
infection, include fatigue, muscle weakness (often in muscles not thought to
have been affected) and muscle pain. .."
Polio scourge comes back to haunt patients Medicine playing catch-up with
post-polio syndrome
By Anita Manning
USA TODAY
Most Americans think the polio epidemic is ancient history. But a generation of
polio survivors around the world today struggles with a menace they couldn't
have foreseen: post-polio syndrome.
The March of Dimes on Monday released ''Post-Polio Syndrome: Identifying Best
Practices in Diagnosis and Care,'' a report to help medical professionals
recognize the problem and treat it, says Christopher Howson, director of Global
Programs for the organization. A brochure outlining guidelines for people who
have had polio is also available at (www.modimes.org) or at the International
Polio Network in St. Louis (www.post-polio.org).
''The extent and magnitude of this medical problem is something not well
understood by medical providers in the U.S.,'' Howson says.
About 40% of polio survivors will develop post-polio syndrome later in life, he
says, suggesting it could affect as many as 250,000 Americans and 4 million to
8 million people worldwide. Symptoms, which begin 15 years or more after the
initial polio infection, include fatigue, muscle weakness (often in muscles not
thought to have been affected) and muscle pain.
The cause of post-polio syndrome is not clear. Some scientists believe it is
the result of extra stress placed on nerve cells that formed new connections to
muscle cells, to make up for those lost in the initial attack by the polio
virus. The new connections allowed patients to regain use of some muscles, but
over time, the theory goes, these connections wear down. Other researchers
believe nerve loss associated with normal aging is also a factor, exaggerated
in people whose muscles had been weakened by polio.
Polio survivors are not receiving the social or medical support they need, says
Julie Silver, founder of the International Rehabilitation Center for Polio at
Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. The focus in the past several
decades has been on polio eradication, but since post-polio syndrome was
identified in the late 1980s, Silver says, ''we haven't had a lot of charitable
organizations or health care institutions come to the forefront to provide
funding for research, treatment or other things polio survivors need.''
Polio survivors are ''a forgotten group of people.''
Silver's just-published book, Post-Polio Syndrome: A Guide for Polio Survivors
& Their Families (Yale University Press, $27.50), summarizes what is known
about the syndrome and offers advice on controlling symptoms and on issues such
as surgical options, sex and intimacy and alternative medicine.
After the polio vaccine became widely used, leading to the elimination of
circulating poliovirus in the USA in 1979, ''there was this huge gap in time,''
Silver says, when polio dropped off the medical radar. ''In medical schools,
polio was taught as a footnote. Post-polio syndrome hadn't been identified and
most people didn't know how to treat polio survivors. There is a lot of
catching up to do.''
AramSarah
she was a dean up at UCSC when I was going there and when her post-polio
syndrome was activated!! She completely cut off all her friends and withdrew,
isolated, gave up on any kind of social existence. Wow, weird, haven't thought
of her in years. But she was living on campus, wow, prime tick country...
I am writing myself a note to call my Mom re this right now... She had been
totally free of symptoms for years & years (barring the damage that had her in
a wheelchair since she was 7 years old, but it was all damage, all done) and
then got sick again!!!!
lou
words, just a reactivated virus that was there all along. Still an
infection and not "post."
Randall Bart
over...@hotmail.com (lou) enlightened sci.med.diseases.lyme with these
thought provoking words:
>I wonder if post-polio syndrome is like post-lyme syndrome? In other
>words, just a reactivated virus that was there all along. Still an
>infection and not "post."
Probably not. A friend of mine had polio as a baby. In his 30s he started
noticing post-polio syndrome. From all we learned about it, post-polio
syndrome is just the normal aging of the central nervous system, except that
you've already used up the spare nerves. It's a slow progression as the
muscles get weaker. In some cases a muscle where the person formerly had a
little strength goes entirely dead, but there's never sudden loss of a lot
of strength.
These numbers are made up, but imagine that a muscle normally has 100 nerves
and it takes 20 to use it at full strength. Imagine also that the half-life
of nerves is 30 years, so at 30 you have 50 nerves, at 60 you have 25, at 90
you have 12. Around 70, you'll start getting weaker, but even in your 90s,
you'll still be able to walk and care for yourself.
Now imagine that polio has reduced this muscle to 8 nerves. The muscle is
weak, but still functioning. After 30 years there are 4 nerves, and it's
much weaker. After 60 years there are only 2 nerves. Maybe one day you
burn out the last nerve to that muscle and then it won't move at all. Or
say a muscle has been reduced to 30 nerves. It functions fine, it survived
polio. After 30 years there are only 15 nerves, and the muscle is starting
to weaken.
As I said, I made up all the numbers, but this is the model of post-polio
syndrome which best fit what we read. I never read anything that suggested
post-polio syndrome was a active infection.
--
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Bob2221M
>I wonder if post-polio syndrome is like post-lyme syndrome? In other
>words, just a reactivated virus that was there all along. Still an
>infection and not "post." >>
Better chance she became infected by tick-bite and they're assuming it's polio.
Anything's possible when there exist bacteria that cause symptoms but can't be
detected