6. What is Polio?
Polio is an infectious viral disease that is
contagious, in its most severe form, causes
paralysis, difficulty breathing and
sometimes death.
9. How can you get it?
By sharing food with an infected person,
drinking liquids that are contaminated with
poliovirus, and by sharing or touching an
item contaminated by the virus.
The polio virus lives in the throat and
intestinal tract of infected persons. The
virus enters the body through the mouth,
usually from hands contaminated with the
virus. Objects, such as eating utensils, can
also spread the virus.
12. Polio Symptoms
The symptoms are fever, headache, muscle
pain, and nausea. Symptoms usually
appear 7 to 14 days after a person
becomes infected with the poliovirus. Up to
95 percent of people who are infected with
poliovirus will have no symptoms.
15. Polio Treatment
There is no treatment that will kill the
poliovirus. Therefore, when dealing with
polio, the body has to fights the virus
away (run its own course).
Most people recover from polio without
any long-term problems.
18. What is the Polio
Vaccine?
There are two general types. One type is
the inactivated vaccine, which contains no
live poliovirus. The other type is the oral
vaccine, which contains live but weakened
poliovirus.
21. History of Polio
The first polio outbreaks in Europe were
reported in the early 19th century, and
polio outbreaks were first reported in the
United States in 1843.