Forrest Maready doesn’t believe that the polio virus causes polio because it was called infantile paralysis…
“Many have suggested that improvements in sanitation caused the rise in paralytic polio. It has been proposed that advances in water quality and sewage systems created a reservoir of children that did not gain natural immunity to the poliovirus infection at a young age—as had happened in previous generations. This may seem to make sense on the surface, but does not stand up to even a trivial amount of scrutiny. The illness was called infantile paralysis for an obvious reason—infants were targeted time and again, as were children. It is unclear how improvements to sanitation could simultaneously prevent children from exposure and target them more frequently than anyone else.”
The Moth in the Iron Lung: A Biography of Polio
He blames DDT and other pesticides instead…
Polio As a Disease of Development
Of course, most people understand that we started seeing more polio because of improved hygiene and sanitation – the polio as a disease of development theory.
“Changes in polio transmission resulted in an increase in the average age of acquisition, which in turn drove changes in polio epidemiology through-out the twentieth century. In this paper, we documented the twentieth-century evolution of polio mortality by sex, race and age; these patterns are best explained by the hygiene hypothesis.”
Unraveling the Social Ecology of Polio
Improved sanitation and hygiene didn’t make polio go away though. It simply shifted it from an endemic to a seasonal, epidemic disease.
Since infants were no longer routinely exposed to polio as infants, they were instead eventually exposed at an older age.
Unfortunately, with polio, that older age put them at greater risk for a more severe case of paralytic polio.
And that’s how improvements to sanitation could simultaneously prevent children from exposure and target them more frequently than anyone else!
Why Was Polio Called Infantile Paralysis?
But most of these cases of paralytic polio were no longer in infants, so how could they have infantile paralysis?
“Infantile Paralysis is a misnomer applied to this disease which has persisted and we have, by general usage, almost universally adopted the name.”
Infantile Paralysis (Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis)
Infantile paralysis was simply the original name for polio…
Why infantile paralysis?
Before the seasonal epidemics of the late 19th century and through the 20th century, who got sick with polio?
Most got exposed as infants, remember?
“Authors agree that this form of paralysis is more common in the first and second years of life than subsequently. In two-thirds of the cases on record the child was between the ages of six months and two years.”
On Infantile Paralysis
And while most had a very mild disease or no symptoms, a small number of them developed paralytic polio = infantile paralysis.
Other Names for Polio
That polio isn’t new should be obvious from all of the folks who have been writing about it over the years:
- Michael Underwood, a physician in England, first described polio in 1789 as a Debility of the lower extremities in his book A treatise on the diseases of children
- Jacob von Heine wrote Lähmungszustände der unteren Extremitäten und deren Behandlung (Paralysis of the lower extremities and their treatment) in 1840
- Morning paralysis or paralysis of the morning
- Frédéric Rilliet in 1851 described polio as Paralysie essentielle chez les enfants (Essential paralysis in infants)
- Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne described polio in 1864 as De la paralysie atrophique graisseuse de l’enfance (atrophic paralysis of childhood.)
- Jacob von Heine in 1860 described it as Spinale Kinderlähmung (infantile spinal paralysis)
- Jean-Martin Charcot in 1872 described it as Tephromyelitis anterior acuta parenchymatose – refers to the ash grey appearance of anterior horn lesions in the spinal cord
- Adolf Kussmaul in 1874 described it as Poliomyelitis anterior acuta – the first to name the disease poliomyelitis!
- Edward Constant Séguin in 1874 used the term spinal paralysis of the adult, although he soon changed to spinal paralysis of the adult and child
- A. G. von Strümpell in 1885 described the cerebral form of poliomyelitis as Uber die akute Encephalitis der Kinder (Polioencephalitis acuta, cerebrale Kinderlähmung)
- Ivar Wickman in 1907 described it as Heine-Medin disease in honor of Jacob von Heine and Karl Oskar Medin
We also had infantile paralysis, acute anterior poliomyelitis, and eventually – just polio.
“In consequence of the discovery that the disease is not confined to young children, the name “infantile paralysis” has lost its force; and as it has now been settled beyond dispute what is the pathological basis of the disease, an endeavour should be made to supply in its place a more strictly scientific name, one which shall in itself indicate the true nature of the disorder. It is not very easy to designate in two or three words a condition such as that which forms the pathological basis of this disease; and hitherto nothing better has been devised for the purpose than the . . . name with which I have headed this paper, namely, “acute anterior polio-myelitis” (πολιóς = grey), for which we are indebted to Professor Kussmaul . . . . the name is one which is likely to be permanently adopted.”
Adolf Kussmaul (1822–1902), and the naming of “poliomyelitis”
And of course, some have simply called it ‘the Crippler.’
More on Polio
- Why is the March of Dimes called the March of Dimes?
- Alternative Names for Vaccine Preventable Diseases
- Origins of a Name – Chickenpox
- The First Five Errors in Turtles All The Way Down
- The First Five Errors in the Moth in the Iron Lung Book
- Polio on TV and the Movies
- Unraveling the Social Ecology of Polio
- Infantile Paralysis (Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis)
- On Infantile Paralysis
- Adolf Kussmaul (1822–1902), and the naming of “poliomyelitis”
- History of Polio
- Polio | History of Vaccines