Polio and post-polio syndrome

Once a common disease, polio can reappear with the migration of unvaccinated populations and where vaccination coverage is lower. In physiatric practice here, cases from the pre-vaccination era predominate; developed public health systems have reduced this disease to almost zero, above all through prophylactic vaccination.

In the acute phase, the clinical picture involves non-specific prodromal manifestations – fever, general weakness and flu-like symptoms, sometimes with meningeal signs – followed later by a paralytic phase with flaccid paresis without sensory deficit, although the muscles may be painful and tender. This disease and its consequences can be prevented, as can many others for which vaccination has changed the practice of physiatry and rheumatology. Post-polio syndrome occurs in patients who have had a polio infection.

Post-polio syndrome refers to a complex of symptoms seen several years after the illness in people with residual weakness, characterised by rapid fatigue, breathing difficulties, pain and abnormal temperature regulation, with a negative polio titre in the serum. The syndrome can also have a progressive course, so the condition needs to be monitored continuously by a specialist doctor. The clinical picture can sometimes overlap with compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots due to an accelerated secondary degenerative process.

The specialist physiatrist – a specialist in physical and rehabilitation medicine – makes early recognition, treatment and rehabilitation possible, particularly in post-polio syndrome.