Is polio harmful to the body?

We all know that children's resistance is not as strong as adults', and many viruses are also endangering their health. In daily life, more and more children are harmed by polio. In daily care, we must be clearly aware of the harm caused by this disease. Let's take a look at whether polio is harmful to the body.

Poliomyelitis is also called poliomyelitis. It is an infectious disease that seriously endangers children's health. It is caused by three types of poliovirus. Although this virus is small, it has a strong ability to spread from bottom to top and can survive in general natural environments. People are generally susceptible to poliovirus, but most children often do not show symptoms after infection, which is medically called latent infection. In some children, the disease occurs due to various reasons that reduce the body's resistance or excessive virus.

When a child becomes ill, he or she may begin to experience symptoms such as fever, sweating, loss of appetite, crying, limb hyperesthesia, and muscle pain. Generally, within two to three days after the fever subsides, the child will experience limb paralysis. In severe cases, paralysis can also invade the respiratory muscles, endangering the child's life. The paralysis of polio varies depending on the location of the nerves damaged by the virus. If the spinal nerves are invaded (the most common), it often involves the limb muscles, respiratory muscles, neck, abdomen, back, waist, etc.; if the respiratory and circulatory centers of the medulla oblongata or the swallowing and coughing nerves are invaded, respiratory and circulatory failure, difficulty swallowing, and food choking may occur.

If the entire brain is affected, drowsiness, confusion, convulsions, and coma may occur. Therefore, even if polio is treated in time and does not endanger life, it often leaves difficult-to-treat disabilities, so it is one of the key infectious diseases to prevent.

Polio vaccine is a vaccine used to prevent polio. There are two types of vaccines available now. One is the live attenuated polio vaccine currently being used in my country, which is the familiar "sugar pill". It is made of live but reduced pathogenicity viruses; the other is called inactivated polio virus vaccine, which is a vaccine made of dead viruses.

The polio virus is transmitted through the patient's feces or oral secretions. Humans are the only host of the polio virus, and it is rare for humans to carry the virus for a long time, such as being asymptomatic but continuing to excrete the virus for more than 6 months. The typical clinical course of this disease goes through six stages (latent period, prodromal period, pre-paralysis period, paralysis period, recovery period, and residual paralysis). During the infection period, patients show symptoms such as low fever and sore throat, cough, diarrhea, restlessness, drowsiness, sweating, meningeal irritation, muscle pain, skin hyperesthesia, sudden acute flaccid paralysis, etc., and most of them are left with lifelong disabilities.

Through the above understanding of the harm of polio to the body, we know the harm of polio, so every parent should have a better understanding of their children's physical health so that they can grow up healthily. Everyone should clearly know that polio is a disease with a very high disability rate. Therefore, for the health of children, relevant preventive work should be done and children must be kept away from the harm of polio.