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This is a quick summary for an
overview.
For much more information and
references click here.
Bronwyn Hancock October 2004
Frequently asked questions about polio:
1)
Isn’t the polio virus very dangerous?
The polio virus rarely makes you sick, and in the rare cases you get sick it is
usually just like having a cold.
2)
If
the polio virus is not normally dangerous, what causes the paralysis?
Epidemics of polio, in which there were cases of paralytic
polio, were not recorded to occur until 1887. This is why polio is called a “20th
century disease”, even though the polio virus itself has been around for a very
long time. What made it start to occur? This is because what provokes it is
intramuscular injections, particularly vaccinations, and before the late 1800s,
intramuscular injections were never given on mass. Terms such as “provocation
poliomyelitis” and “vaccine-associated poliomyelitis” are used when referring to
it in medical research for this reason. Polio epidemics have always followed on
from intensified vaccination programs.
3)
Didn’t vaccination eliminate polio?
Polio had declined from its peak in 1950 by 80-90% by the
time the polio vaccine was introduced in 1956, so the vaccine was not
responsible for its decline. Indeed after the vaccine was introduced, the
incidence and deaths from polio increased, which was a major problem.
4)
So
what did eliminate polio?
This is where it gets interesting. In 1958 the definition
of polio was changed to make the diagnostic criteria so restrictive that it
became almost impossible to call an illness polio even when the person suffers
paralysis and the polio virus is present. Immediately this change occurred the
number of cases of “polio” crashed, and the number of cases skyrocketed of
“other” diseases, such as “viral meningitis” and “cerebral palsy”
(up to 75% of these cases are actually polio). All the vaccines – for DPT, MMR,
Hib, polio etc are still provoking polio to this day, but the word
“polio” is very rarely used. When paralysis occurs it usually does not last more
than a couple of days in which cases usually no diagnosis is given when they
occur these days.
5)
What about all those children that were in hospital wards in iron lungs?
Iron lungs were found to be counterproductive for the treatment of polio so use
of them discontinued. It’s as simple as that. | 
