Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with an entero-virus. While this can affect any part of the nervous system it has a predilection for damaging the cells of the spinal cord which are responsible for motor movements, causing weakness and paralysis of the affected muscles. This disease has largely been eradicated in the Western World by the use of the polio vaccine, which is a live but weakened (called attenuated) virus. Rarely the disease can occur as a result of the vaccination, where the vaccine has regained its virulence. Since this is an entero-virus (which means it replicates in the human gut) babies who have been vaccinated secrete the virus in their faeces for a number of days, so it is important that parents, whose own immunity might have waned, are scrupulous about hygiene when they are changing nappies.
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