What are the symptoms of polio?

Polio is an acute infectious disease that can endanger the life and health of children. If not treated properly, the condition will worsen. So what are the symptoms of polio?

Polio initially presents with fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and general discomfort, which parents often think are colds or indigestion. The fever subsided after 1-4 days, but after a few days, it came back again and was higher than the first time. The prominent symptoms are hyperesthesia-like pain, not allowing others to touch, accompanied by flushing, headache, sore throat, vomiting, sweating, followed by drowsiness and other symptoms. Paralysis occurs after 3-7 days, most commonly in the lower limbs. If the paralysis does not progress further, it can gradually recover one week after it appears.

The incubation period of this disease is 5 to 14 days, and it can manifest clinically in various types: ① latent infection; ② abortive type; ③ non-paralysis type; ④ paralysis type. The main symptoms of the prodromal phase are fever, loss of appetite, sweating, irritability and systemic hyperesthesia; poliomyelitis nausea may also be seen. Vomiting, headache, sore throat, constipation, diffuse abdominal pain, rhinitis, cough, pharyngeal exudate, diarrhea, etc., lasting 1 to 4 days. If the disease does not progress, it is called the abortive type. 1 to 6 days after the prodromal symptoms of the early stage of paralysis disappear, the body temperature rises again, headache, nausea, vomiting are severe, the skin becomes red, there is a temporary bladder sphincter disorder, stiffness and burning pain in the posterior neck muscles, trunk and limbs, and constipation often occurs.

If you go to the hospital for treatment in time, polio can be cured. In the past, some long-term symptoms that could not be recovered were considered to be sequelae of "incurable diseases"; currently, there are treatments such as acupuncture, massage or surgery. There are polio patients among the people around the patient. The patient has the above-mentioned symptoms of polio, such as fever, limb pain, limb paralysis, etc. The patient's limb paralysis is flaccid paralysis (i.e. the limbs are loose and weak), muscle atrophy, and limb thinning. The child has normal intelligence and normal bowel and bladder functions. The child was normal at birth, but developed limb paralysis due to fever when he was 6 months old. There are various forms of limb paralysis and deformity, with asymmetric degrees of disease in the limbs; the affected limbs feel cold due to poor blood flow, but feel normal.

It is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Because the disease mainly changes in the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and the motor nerves of the brain stem, it is medically called poliomyelitis. This disease can cause muscle weakness and partial paralysis of the limbs. Because it often occurs in children, it is also called "infant paralysis." The polio virus is mainly excreted through the patient's feces, and the detoxification period is very long, up to 5-6 weeks or even longer. The main transmission routes are through contaminated sources, food, hands, flies, etc., and then transmitted through the digestive tract. After the virus invades the body, it enters the lymph nodes and blood circulation through the throat, then invades the spinal cord, brain, and nervous system, making people sick.