Poliomyelitis Research Paper

Poliomyelitis is a severe viral disease impacting the spinal cord and nervous system. Fever, headache, malaise, back and neck stiffness and pain, and paralysis of limbs are all symptons. 1950s New Zealand had two epidemics, one from 1952-53 and the other from 1955-56. Young people were worst affected. Critically paralysed patients only survived with long spells in compression chambers or ‘iron lung’. To help survivors with wasted legs walk, they were equipped with strengthening metal supports. During this decade, effective polio vaccines were developed. Mass immunisation into the 60s eradicated polio from New Zealand, and in 2000 the Western Pacific was declared free of the