Both Guillain-Barré disease and aseptic meningitis were diagnosed as polio during the US epidemics prior to 1957. If you use the pre-1957 definition, then there are many more cases of poliomyelitis occurring in the US today, than there were in 1952—at the height of the US polio epidemics.
GBS is about 6,000 Americans per year.
Viral meningitis hospitalization rates are about 50,000 per year.
764,000 Americans have symptoms of palsy.
Coxsackie virus and echovirus can mimic polio as well, though those numbers are harder to find. 10 million cases per year, but I’m not sure how many complications there are.
Additionally, your example is a little exaggerated because most poliomyelitis victims don’t show permanent symptoms of polio. Polio is 95% asymptomatic, with another 4.5% experiencing mild, flu-like symptoms. Only less than 1% of people experience paralysis complications, and most recover from that.
And I’m not trying to downplay any suffering caused by the disease—I feel terrible for everyone harmed. But the story of the polio vaccine “miracle” is incorrect.
Both Guillain-Barré disease and aseptic meningitis were diagnosed as polio during the US epidemics prior to 1957. If you use the pre-1957 definition, then there are many more cases of poliomyelitis occurring in the US today, than there were in 1952—at the height of the US polio epidemics.
GBS is about 6,000 Americans per year.
Viral meningitis hospitalization rates are about 50,000 per year.
764,000 Americans have symptoms of palsy.
Coxsackie virus and echovirus can mimic polio as well, though those numbers are harder to find. 10 million cases per year, but I’m not sure how many complications there are.
Additionally, your example is a little exaggerated because most poliomyelitis victims don’t show permanent symptoms of polio. Polio is 95% asymptomatic, with another 4.5% experiencing mild, flu-like symptoms. Only less than 1% of people experience paralysis complications, and most recover from that.
And I’m not trying to downplay any suffering caused by the disease—I feel terrible for everyone harmed. But the story of the polio vaccine “miracle” is incorrect.