Affiliations: The Post-Polio Program, National Rehabilitation Hospital, 102 Irving St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20010, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author. Spain Rehabilitation Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1717 Sixth Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35233-7330, USA.
Tel.: +1 205 934 3490; Fax: +1 202 975 4896
Abstract: Paralytic poliomyelitis has plagued mankind for centuries. The incidence of acute paralytic poliomyelitis dramatically declined in 1955 only after the introduction of the inactivated polio vaccine. Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) was described as early as the 1870s, but was not clearly recognized by the medical community until the early 1980s. This article reviews the history and epidemiology of acute paralytic poliomyelitis, as well as post-polio syndrome, from its early description by Charcot and others in 1875, to the modern roots of PPS research in 1954. Finally, we will describe the presenting features of PPS, in both clinical and population studies which represent two very different ‘faces’ of post-polio.
Keywords: Paralytic poliomyelitis, Post-polio syndrome, Epidemiology of polio and post-polio syndrome, Clinical features of post-polio syndrome
