A DISEASE CALLED POST- POLIO SYNDROME

POST-POLIO SYNDROME

Post-polio syndrome can be described as series of symptoms and sings experienced by survivors of poliomyelitis.Poliomyelitis is a debilitating childhood disease.it is a highly infectious disease caused by virus that enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestines. Afterward,these viruses invade the nervous system,and therefore quickly cause total paralysis.As the virus passes along to the brain and spinal cord,symptoms like fatigue,headache,vomitting,stiffness in the neck,pain in the limbs are experienced by the sufferer.Many of the nerves stop functioning,resulting in paralysis of some of the muscles in the arms an limbs.
Here comes the body's recuperative powers which are amazing.Nerves that were not affected by the virus send out new "sprouts",to reconnect the muscle cells that were not orphaned when their previous nerves died.A single motor neuron in the spinal cord may also grow terminal axon sprouts,which may connect to many more muscle cell than it did originally,thus greatly increasing the neuron capacity.a motor neuron that previously stimulated 1,000 muscle cells might eventually reconnect to between 5,000 to 10,000 cells.So,it is possible for the sufferer to be able to walk again through this amazing recuperative powers of the body.
However,research has shown that over a period of time of 15 to 40 years,these neural-muscle units may begin to show signs of fatigue because of being overworked.therefore,POST-POLIO SYNDROME{PPS} is a condition that causes symptoms to reappear in individuals who had earlier recovered from poliomyelitis many years back.many sufferers experience muscle weakness,fatigue,joint and muscle pain,cold intolerance,and breathing problems.According to World Health Organisation,there are over 20 million polio survivors worldwide.Current evidence further shows that 25-30% of them are affected by PPS.