News tagged with polio
The heroes of India's quest to wipe out polio
Later this month, India will be removed from a dwindling list of countries where polio is considered endemic, a huge achievement made possible by people like Madara, a 76-year-old street hawker.
Feb 08, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Afghan polio cases rise, govt appeals to militants
Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged insurgents Tuesday to allow health teams to vaccinate children in war-torn parts of the country where cases of polio have risen sharply.
Jan 17, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
India marks 1 year since last polio case
(AP) -- The top U.S. health official administered polio vaccination drops to children in New Delhi on Friday as India marked one year since its last case of the crippling disease.
Jan 13, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
India marks milestone in fight against polio
(AP) -- India will celebrate a full year since its last reported case of polio on Friday, a major victory in a global eradication effort that appeared to be stalled just a few years ago.
Jan 12, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Is the end of polio truly in sight?
Declaring the eradication of polio will be far more difficult than it was for smallpox, according to a review published in the Journal of General Virology. Further research into the complex virus - host i ...
Nov 30, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Polio still a threat to public health
Health professionals and researchers across the globe believe they are on the verge of eradicating polio, a devastating virus which can lead to paralysis and death. Despite successful eradication in most countries, there ...
Nov 07, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Grant funds feasibility study of microneedle patches for polio vaccination
The Georgia Institute of Technology will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ...
Nov 07, 2011 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
State of medical emergency in north Angola over polio case
The northern Angolan province of Uige has declared a state of medical emergency after a 14-month-old boy tested positive for polio, which has made a resurgence in the country, UNICEF said Thursday.
Nov 03, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Toyota shows machines to help sick, elderly move
Toyota unveiled its ambitions for high-tech health care Tuesday, displaying experimental robots that the auto giant says can lift disabled patients from their hospital beds or help them walk.
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
Nov 01, 2011 |
5 / 5 (4) |
2
Commonwealth leaders raise polio vaccine spending
(AP) -- Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring ...
Oct 29, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Officials say India close to wiping out polio
(AP) -- Health officials say there has not been a case of polio in India for nine months, the longest the country has ever been polio free.
Oct 24, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Research could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, viral infections
The intestinal ecosystem is even more dynamic than previously thought, according to two studies by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers published in the latest issue of Science.
Oct 19, 2011 |
4 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Predictive model developed for polio
Using outbreak data from 2003-2010, Kathleen O'Reilly of Imperial College London, UK and colleagues develop a statistical model of the spread of wild polioviruses in Africa that can predict polio outbreaks six months in advance. ...
Oct 18, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
New research shows how viruses use 'good' gut bacteria to bypass immune system
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two new studies demonstrate how viruses, such as the one responsible for polio, use good bacteria in the human (or mouse) gut to evade detection by the immune system.
10 infected with polio in China outbreak
At least 10 people in northwestern China have contracted a highly infectious strain of polio, in the first outbreak of the disease in the country for 12 years, a United Nations group said Thursday.
Sep 22, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. The term derives from the Greek poliós (πολιός), meaning "grey", myelós (µυελός), referring to the "spinal cord", and the suffix -itis, which denotes inflammation.
Although approximately 90% of polio infections cause no symptoms at all, affected individuals can exhibit a range of symptoms if the virus enters the blood stream. In about 1% of cases the virus enters the central nervous system, preferentially infecting and destroying motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and acute flaccid paralysis. Different types of paralysis may occur, depending on the nerves involved. Spinal polio is the most common form, characterized by asymmetric paralysis that most often involves the legs. Bulbar polio leads to weakness of muscles innervated by cranial nerves. Bulbospinal polio is a combination of bulbar and spinal paralysis.
Poliomyelitis was first recognized as a distinct condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. Its causative agent, poliovirus, was identified in 1908 by Karl Landsteiner. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the late 19th century, polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century. Polio epidemics have crippled thousands of people, mostly young children; the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Polio had existed for thousands of years quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1880s, when major epidemics began to occur in Europe; soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the United States.
By 1910, much of the world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases and frequent epidemics became regular events, primarily in cities during the summer months. These epidemics—which left thousands of children and adults paralyzed—provided the impetus for a "Great Race" towards the development of a vaccine. Developed in the 1950s, polio vaccines are credited with reducing the global number of polio cases per year from many hundreds of thousands to around a thousand. Enhanced vaccination efforts led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Rotary International could result in global eradication of the disease.
For more information about Poliomyelitis, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.