Polio – 400,000 Australians still experience the pain
There are an estimated 400,000 polio survivors still living in Australia.
More and more of these are suffering the effects of the disease 50 years after contracting it.
Most of these are in their late 50s, others are immigrants who contracted the disease overseas.
Polio is a virus which is highly infectious. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in hours.
There is no cure or medecine for polio.
The Australian experience was that paralytic polio affected 20,000-40,000 annually.
When vaccines were introduced, this dropped dramatically, and there are now no natvie instances of polio in Australia that haven’t been imported.
An unfortunate fact is, that the 20,000-40,000 cases of paralytic polio represents about 1% of total infections. The other infections can still lead to post polio syndrome (PPS).
PPS include respiratory problems, chronic fatigue, continuing increasing muscle weakness, inability to speak and/or swallow, sleep disorders, debilitating muscle and joint pain.
Some can no longer walk.
Mortality Vs Morbidity
Up to 40,000 Australians were diagnosed with the most severe form of the disease, paralytic polio, between 1930 and 1988. (Polio Australia)
400,000 Australians are living with Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) don’t appear in ANY mortality figures, they haven’t died, but their suffering continues.
The oft quoted mortality tables don’t figure these individuals at all.
Less than 1% of infected individuals died from the disease, but the others often suffer lifelong effects. Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP)
AFP is a symptom, not a disease.
There are claims that polio has been “rebadged” as Acute Flaccid Paralysis, hence doesn’t get counted as polio.
A quick “back of the envelope” calculation proves that this is a ludicrous claim.
Australia had 40,000 polio victims suffering the most severe form from 1930 to 1988 – 58 years.
So since 1988, a period of 29 years, you would expect 20,000 cases of “hidden” polio being labelled as AFP if you were to beleive the anti-vaccination lobby.
20,000 cases of AFP is a huge number of disabled to hide.
Australia actively monitors all cases of AFP and determines causality. Health Gov Au
