Research Paper on:
PPS

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the "gray matter" of the spinal cord. It is a devastatingly serious disease caused by the poliovirus. It usually involves fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting and stiffness of the back  and neck. In time, muscles tend to shrink and weaken, contract and become permanently deformed. The virus homes in on spinal cord nerves that controlled muscle movement. Nerve cells  die, leaving the muscles they served weak or inactive. Millions of people, mostly children, were affected, some tragically losing ability to breathe on their own, before the vaccine was developed.  In the past forty to fifty years, polio has been almost completely eradicated in the United States but its ghost has remained in the form of "Post-Polio Syndrome" or "PPS."  People who experience it face the reoccurrence of old symptoms as well as the development of new post-polio symptoms. Post-Polio Syndrome Gordon and Feldman (2002) explain that people with the  syndrome experience "unpredictable symptoms and progressive limitations ... It has been estimated that nearly one-half of the 1.63 million Americans who were diagnosed with polio are now reporting new and  unexpected problems" (pp. 28). In fact, they are developing new forms of secondary disabilities and physical restrictions. Gordon and Feldman also explain that the medical community was surprised to see  how widespread the problem was and that even though countless numbers of doctors had heard complaints from their patients it was a surprise when the connection to polio was made  and even named "post polio syndrome." They add: "While it is not clear what exactly causes post-polio problems, physicians believe that it is not a reactivation of the original virus"  (pp. 28). According to Saxon (2001): "Since polio was considered to be a static disease by the medical community, neither those who had polio (or their physicians) anticipated that decades