Language use is even more central to the practice and theory of medicine, or indeed any other kind of healing, than it is to other sciences and activities that require a specialized lexicon. As the author of this valuable study remarks, in medicine, "language is both tool and product simultaneously". As psychosocial and psychoneurological explanations become ever more persuasive within orthodox...

objective: as we are approaching the global eradication of wild poliovirus, laboratory surveillance of poliovirus by the gold standard cell culture method becomes increasingly important. as there is a lot of concern about accurate and sensitive detection of imported wild and vaccine derived polioviruses (vdpvs) in polio-free countries, in this study we assessed and compared the sensitivity of t...

OBJECTIVE To investigate perceived health and its relation to residual paresis from polio, late onset neuromuscular symptoms following poliomyelitis (LSP), and sex, in a population based sample of polio survivors. METHODS 350 subjects traced from the notification records of the Dutch 1956 polio epidemic received a mailed questionnaire on residual polio paresis and new neuromuscular symptoms. ...

BACKGROUND To prevent importations of wild polioviruses into a polio free region a high level of population immunity must be kept. Standard methodology for determination of polio antibodies is a feature aimed at obtaining consistent results. An International Standard Serum for polio antibodies exists, but no protective level in International Units is defined. METHODS A representative study wa...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the construct validity of a new rating scale for self-reported impairments in persons with late effects of polio. DESIGN Psychometric analysis of data on self-perceived impairments in persons with prior polio. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventy-three persons with prior polio (119 men and 154 women; mean age, 63.5 years). METHOD Rasch analysis of a 13-item rating scale ...

Objectives Transmission of polio poses a threat to military forces when deploying to regions where such viruses are endemic. US-born soldiers generally enter service with immunity resulting from childhood immunization against polio; moreover, new recruits are routinely vaccinated with inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), supplemented based upon deployment circumstances. Given residual protecti...

www.vi-vi.org We are only US$945 million short of successfully eradicating poliomyelitis: here, a case for why polio eradication should be made a priority worldwide is made – a proposal that is both economically viable and important for health care initiatives in the future. With only 128 cases reported in 2012 (by 6 September 2012) compared with 356 in 2011, we have come closer than ever befor...

BACKGROUND India has recently achieved the "Polio free status" by WHO with stringent efforts of the Health Ministry to control its spread. However, we should not forget the lessons learnt from the failure of National malaria eradication Programme and National Tuberculosis control Programme which creates a need to assess the probable barriers for the various National Health Programmes. The prese...

Strengthening routine immunization is one of the four prongs of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Using data collected through 30-cluster sample household surveys of caretakers of children aged 12-23 months, this paper assessed the effectiveness of house-to-house visits on routine oral polio immunization completion, using simple frequency tables, bivariate and multivariate logistic regre...

Australia, along with 36 other countries in the Western Pacific Region, was declared free of poliomyelitis by the World Health Organization in October 2000. Yet, the persistence of wild poliovirus in the 4 remaining polio-endemic countries-Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan-poses a risk for its importation into all countries declared polio free. We describe the public health response and...