Undiagnosed Polio
Original Post: Maybe you could give me some feedback on my situation. Seems as though I am alone with what I believe to be PPS. I have a weak left leg that often times also feels like a dull tooth ache or very painful. My chiropractor feels as if I had a mild case of polio that was never noticed by my parents. I was born in 1950. My closest friend had polio in 1955. I’ve never forgotten those awful braces on his legs. I now have a C-pap machine for sleep apnea and fatigue. I have had severe IBS constipation all my life. In my heart, I kind of feel he is right about that diagnosis.
Additional Post: I believe my parents were aware and chose to keep it a secret. My neurologist said many parents did that if it was possible. My mother told my wife that my legs were paralyzed for a short time (I have no memory except being carried). My year was also 1955.
Additional Post: I thought I was alone on that one. I had the summer "grippe" in 1954 - recovered on my own, only a drop foot remained. 10 years later my parents were told it was a "polio" foot. It was never mentioned again. I was diagnosed with PPS in my early 50’s. At age 90 (15 years after my diagnosis), Mom told me that she and my Dad knew in their gut that it was polio at the time, but I recovered so they just put it aside and never mentioned it again.
Additional Question: My sister had paralytic polio and I had what the doctor said was the flu at the same time. Could my "flu" have been a mild case of polio?
Dr. Bruno’s Response: Your experiences are exactly why we will never know how many people in North America actually had polio! The 1987 national health interview survey estimated that there were 1.63 million American polio survivors. But you would've had to know that you had polio to answer "yes" to the survey.
What's more, reporting cases of was not required until 1955 and was only required to verify that the vaccine was working. Nobody cared how many people had polio before the vaccine. The federal government just wanted to make sure that the vaccine was actually preventing new cases.
If the poliovirus entered the nervous system there was no mild “case." The poliovirus killed brain stem (bulbar) neurons even if it didn't affect the spinal cord. And you had to have 60% of your spinal cord motor neurons killed to have any lasting paralysis!
As it applies to having had a "mild case," here's another stat. We went through the Mayo Clinic's Olmsted county data base. We found data that indicated there are 150,000+ Americans who had polio (usually siblings of paralytic polio survivors) who were never diagnosed - not even as having "non-paralytic" polio or the "summer grippe."
Bottom lines:
Poliovirus did lots of damage whether or not you had muscle weakness or paralysis.
We have no idea how many people had polio.
This is exactly what's happened in India. It is estimated that there are 8 million Indian polio survivors who aren’t being cared for. But new cases of polio must be reported to make sure that India remains "polio free." The Indian reporting system has found that the country has traded 200,000 cases of polio per year for 60,000 cases of non-polio paralysis caused by other viruses that live in your intestines and are passed from person to person just as the polioviruses were.
Look in the Index of the Encyclopedia of Polio and PPS under the topics “undiagnosed polio” and “non-paralytic” polio for more information.