Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route.
In fewer than 1% of cases the virus enters the central nervous system, preferentially infecting and destroying motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and acute flaccid paralysis.
Spinal polio is the most common form of paralytic poliomyelitis; it results from viral invasion of the motor neurons of the anterior horn cells, or the ventral (front) gray matter section in the spinal column, which are responsible for movement of the muscles, including those of the trunk, limbs and the intercostal muscles.
Bulbar polio occurs when poliovirus invades and destroys nerves within the bulbar region of the brain stem. The bulbar region is a white matter pathway that connects the cerebral cortex to the brain stem. The destruction of these nerves weakens the muscles supplied by the cranial nerves, producing symptoms of encephalitis, and causes difficulty breathing, speaking and swallowing.
Bulbospinal polio, this subtype is also called respiratory polio. Here the virus affects the upper part of the cervical spinal cord (C3 through C5), and paralysis of the diaphragm occurs. The critical nerves affected are the phrenic nerve, which drives the diaphragm to inflate the lungs, and those that drive the muscles needed for swallowing.
There is no cure for polio. The focus of modern treatment has been on providing relief of symptoms, speeding recovery and preventing complications. The polio vaccines developed by Jonas Salk in 1952 and Albert Sabin in 1962 are credited with reducing the annual number of polio cases from many hundreds of thousands to around a thousand.
Famous People who Had and Have Polio
Donald Sutherland - Donald McNichol Sutherland (born July 17, 1935) is a prolific Canadian actor with a film career spanning over 40 years. A sickly child, he battled rheumatic fever, hepatitis and caught polio as a child. Sutherland developed a love of reading while bedridden. He went on to become an accomplished actor, and has appeared in over 130 films.. Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Sutherland was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on 18 December 1978. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. He was Canada's youngest radio announcer at age 14. His first great successes came with The Dirty Dozen in 1967 with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, in 1970 as the lead Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (The film) and as tank commander Sgt. Oddball in Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas.
F.D. Roosevelt - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), He was the 32nd President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. In August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Roosevelt contracted an illness, at the time believed to be polio, which resulted in Roosevelt's total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. FDR sought out innumerable cures including electric currents, ultraviolet light, massage, mineral baths — whatever might improve his atrophied legs. He also consulted a number of other physicians and therapists in a vain effort to revitalize his muscles.
Arthur C. Clarke - Sir Arthur Charles Clarke - (born 16 December 1917) Was a British science fiction writer, futuristic and inventor who became famous following his novel "A Space Odyssey". He was known as one of the "Big Three" of science fiction which included Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. He has written many science fiction books since then and they all became very respected among their readers. Charles has been suffering from polio but has kept his enthusiasm for all of his passions, he says he thought he would never see the day where man would go to the moon and to the planets. Although now he has lived to see it happen which proves many things of what he has been saying and writing for the past 60 years.
Kerry Packer - (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) Kerry Packer was the wealthiest Australian of his time being the head of a multi-billion dollar industry which included publishing, media and gaming. He owned what is known as the Nine Network and was one of the most influential men in Australia having a net worth of $6.5 billion in AUD at the time of his death in 2005. Kerry Packer was never really good at school and eventually became a victim of polio. Despite the experience Kerry continued to excel in athletics throughout his life and successfully attained great fortune.
Kim Beazley - (born 14 December 1948) Kim Beazley is an Australian politician and academic being the leader of the opposition from 1996 to 2001, and from 2005 to 2006. He is the only ex-leader in the party's history to return to the position after leaving it. Kim Beazley became a victim of polio at the age of 5 years old and it had caused a royal scare. Kim's mother had shaken the hand of the queen shortly before Kim was diagnosed with polio. Since polio was known to be contagious some feared that the queen may have contracted it during that time.
John Laws - (born 8 August 1935) John Laws is a radio presenter in Australia and has been on Australian talk radio longer than any other broadcaster due to his un-surpassed popularity. He has been the most influential and respected programs in the Australian media for many years and has been a voice-over artist for commercials. After 55 years on air Laws retired in 2007 leaving the 2UE building in sydney with his popular quote 'You be kind to each other'. John laws has suffered from polio and once needed the Iron Lung to stay alive.
Jack Nicklaus - (born January 21, 1940) Jack Nicklaus also known as "The Golden Bear" is thought by many to be the greatest golfer of all times. He holds several records and has been involved not only in golf as a sport but also golf course design, writing golf instruction books, and he has had his own tournament on the PGA Tour. Jack has suffered from a mild case of polio at a younger age but was able to get through it without too many problems. He eventually became a professional golfer winning several championships and tournaments in a row, beating some of the best golfers of his time.
Ian Dury - (May 12, 1942 – March 27, 2000) Ian Dury was an English songwritter, band leader and singer well known for being the founder and lead singer of the band Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Ian Dury has made many songs that were banned or refused by broadcasters such as BBC. Many times did the lyrics get a rating of inappropriate or uncompromising. Although refused by many radio stations Ian Dury gained popularity as the punk music era was being born. Ian caught polio on a trip to a Southend swimming pool which had caused him to limp, partly paralyzing his legs.
Mia Farrow - (born February 9, 1945) Mia Farrow is a renowned American actress and has appeared in over 40 films winning several awards in the process. Mia is notable for her constant humanitarian work such as Unicef Goodwill Ambassador. She survived polio as a child and has ever since been present at speeches while dedicating her time to organizations that help fight it. She has also helped to launch a polio immunization day which targeted all children under the age of 5 years old.
Neil Young - (born November 12, 1945) Neil Young is a Canadian songwriter, singer, pianist, guitarist and film director. Neil is involved in many different styles of music including jazz, swing, rockabilly, electronic music, and blues being known for his deep lyrics and good musician skills as a guitarist with a few other instrumental capabilities. In youth Neil Young had to survive polio, epilepsy, diabetes and the divorce of his parents which evidentially a difficult task. Nonetheless he has made it successfully.
Paul Martin - Paul Edgar Philippe Martin PC, MP (also known as Paul Martin, Jr.) (born August 28, 1938) was the twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Prime Minister Chrétien and Martin frequently clashed while in office. It was often reported that Chrétien privately often condemned Martin in bitter terms to aides and that he had never forgiven Martin for running against him in the Liberal leadership convention of 1990. Paul Martin Sr., Canada's Minister of Health and Welfare, had strong personal reasons for wanting the vaccination program to continue. He himself had contracted polio in 1907, and his son, Paul Martin Jr., the current Prime Minister, had overcome the disease in 1946. Thus, Martin decided to continue the mass vaccinations, and Canada's confidence in the Salk vaccine renewed confidence around the world.
Alan Alda - Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (born January 28, 1936) is a five-time Emmy Award-winning, six-time Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated American actor. He is perhaps most famous for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the television series M.A.S.H. Alda contracted polio, aged 7, during an epidemic. His parents administered a painful treatment, developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, where hot woolen blankets were applied to the limbs and the muscles were stretched by massage. This treatment, though brutal, allowed Alda to recover much movement.
Alan Toy - (24 May 1950) Alan is a lifelong activist/organizer in the disability community, working to increase individual and community-based empowerment. He is a Project Director at the UCLA Policy Forum's Neighborhood Knowledge Research Center, in the School of Public Policy and Social Research, where he is the manager of several online projects that assist people with disabilities with their day-to-day independent living needs. Alan Toy got polio in 1953 at the age of 3. "By the time I was 5," he says, "I was involved in fund-raising activities from being skipper-for-a-day on U.S. destroyers to drag racing to bake sales to interviews. I was the poster boy for polio in my area of the world." In true polio survivor fashion, he had disdained a wheelchair until that time. "I told people here that they should hire people with disabilities because they know how to use the equipment, for one thing. Having said that, I thought I'd better learn myself."
David Sanborn - saxophonist (born July 30, 1945) is an American alto saxophonist, most commonly associated with radio-friendly smooth jazz and pop-jazz fusion. He has been a highly regarded the late 1960s, playing with an array of well-known artists, such as Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Jaco Pastorius, the Brecker Brothers, David Bowie, Little Feat, Bob James, James Taylor, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Joe Beck, Donny Hathaway, Elton John, Gil Evans, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, Steely Dan, Ween, The Eagles, the German group Nena, and Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru. Sanborn was born in Tampa, Florida and grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri. He suffered from polio in his youth, and began playing the saxophone on a physician's advice to strengthen his weakened chest muscles and improve his breathing.
Dinah Shore - (1916-1994): singer Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore February 29, 1916 - February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress and television personality. She was most popular during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s. When she was two years old, she was stricken with polio (infantile paralysis), a disease that was not preventable at the time, and for which treatment was limited to bedrest. Her parents provided intensive care for her and she recovered and overcame the disease. However, she continued to have a slightly deformed foot and limp, which did not physically impede her.
Christopher Templeton - actress, born and raised on the "Gold Coast" of Chicago where she went to New Tier High School. Templeton (one of the first physically handicapped soap opera stars) was partially crippled due to a case of childhood polio. From 1983-1993 - walking with a post-polio limp. Chris has established herself as an activist for disability rights and has been awarded for her efforts by not only knowing that she has effected millions of viewers world wide by giving them positive images of people with disabilities. Christopher Templeton starred in "Ready, Willing and Able" as Samantha "Sam" Martin, a CIA special agent. Templeton's other movie roles included the role of Diane St. Clair in the TV movie Hostage for a Day (1994) and the role of Marian Burke in the TV Movie Columbo: Butterfly in Shades of Grey (1994). Christopher also made TV appearances on TV shows. Templeton walks about with the aid of a cane and leg brace.
Ann Adams - (1937-1992) artist (by mouth) Adams had not breathed on her own for over forty years, and though she could not use her hands, her mind was far from being handicapped. Paralyzed from the neck down, she was able to move only a few facial and neck muscles. At the age of nineteen, Ann married an Annapolis Naval Officer. At twenty-one, she gave birth to her son, Kenny, and two years later, in 1950, she was struck with polio. After polio struck, Ann spent a year-and-a-half in Jacksonville, and the following year-and-a-half in a rehab center in North Carolina. The next five years of her life were spent in the strict cloister of an iron lung. There was no way or means of leaving even her bedroom because of the respiratory problem. The National Foundation For Infantile Paralysis provided equipment and nursing services which kept her alive.
Tony Gould - An award-winning English journalist, Gould contracted polio when he was twenty in 1959. Tony Gould was for many years a BBC radio producer and literary editor of New Society magazine. He is a writer and reviewer, two of his books are, A Summer Plague: Polio and Its Survivors and Don’t Fence Me In. Gould acknowledges that most of the world's population has not yet received anti-polio vaccine and that much remains to be learned about post-polio syndrome. In the 1970's and into the 1980's there was an increasing medical ignorance about polio; "people troubled by its after-effects were dismissed by doctors either as hypochondriacs or, worse, neurotics in need of psychiatric treatment."
Sir Walter Scott - (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time. In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake , Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian.
Georgia Coleman - (January 23, 1912 – September 14, 1940) was an American diver who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and in the 1932 Summer Olympics. In 1928 she won the silver medal in the 10 metre platform event as well as the bronze medal in the 3 metre springboard competition. Four years later she won the gold medal in the 3 metre springboard event as well as the silver medal in the 10 metre platform competition. She was born in St. Maries, Idaho. Georgia Suffered of polio throughout her life.
Annette Kellerman - (1886-1975) Australian marathon swimmer and actress
Arthur Guyton - (1919-2003) doctor
Ben Bradlee - former editor for the Washington Post
Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar - Cricket Champion from India
Bill Cullen - (1920-1990) game show host
Brooks Stevens - (1911-1995) "creative genius" at Harley Davidson
Buddy Daley - Baseball All-Star (1959 and 1960)
Cathy Rigby's -
CeDell Davis - Jazz Guitarist
Charles E. Bennett - (1911-2003) longtime US Congressman, Florida
Claudius - (10 B.C. to 54 A.D.) Emperor of Rome
Dennis Washington - businessman and entrepreneur
Dick Cabela - outdoorsman and founder of "Cabela's"
Dorothea Lange - (1895-1965): photographer
Dr. Albert Sabin - (1906-1993
Dr. Jonas Salk - (1914-1995),
Ed Roberts - (1939-1995) Father of the Independent Living Movement
Edna Marie Moore - (1930-1989) Texas artist
Egbert Hamilton Walker - (1899-1991) Smithsonian Institute Botanist
Eleanor Abbott - designed the game CandyLand
Elizabeth Twistington Higgins - (1923-1990): MBE, English ballet dancer and artist
Elmer L. Andersen - (1910-2005): former Minnesota Governor, businessman
Ethelda Blaibtrey - (1902-1978): olympic gold medalist for swimming
Francis Ford Coppola - director
Frank Mars - (1883-1933): founded M&M Mars chocolate company
Frida Kahlo - (1907-1954): Mexican painter
Gini Laurie - (1913-1989)
Harold Brooks-Baker - (1933-2005): publisher
Henrietta Wyeth Hurd - (1907-1997): artist
Henry Holden - actor, comedian, athlete, activist
Hildegard Knef - (1925-2002): German actress, singer, writer
Horace Parlan - pianist
Hugh Gregory Gallagher - author and historian
Ida Louise Anderson - (1900-1941): broadcast radio pioneer
Ida Lupino - (1917-1995): London-born actress, director, screenwriter
NOTE: Disabled World has assembled this list from both online and offline resources. If you know of a discrepancy in this article please contact us so we can ammend the entry.
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