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Here is a disturbing item.... POLIO: WILL WE SOON VANQUISH AN OLD ENEMY? Despite an 80% reduction in the worldwide incidence, poliomyelitis continues to be endemic in 67 countries. Introduction In August 1921, at 39 years of age, Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed paralytic poliomyelitis. He never walked again without the use of leg braces. Doris Kearns Goodwin described the "sweeping fear" experienced by parents during a 1951 summer: "...the fear of polio, a disease which struck silently and seemingly at random. In the midst of play, a healthy child might be struck down by a blinding headache or a high fever, transformed within hours or days into a lifelong invalid." The last reported cases of "wild" polio (naturally acquired infection) in the US occurred in 1979. Since then, great strides have been made worldwide in polio eradication. Wild poliovirus, however, remains endemic in many countries. Endemic refers to the continuing presence of polio disease in a country or region. Most cases of poliomyelitis are mild and self-limited and do not result in paralysis. The occurrence of these mild cases subsequently raises the potential for the spread of unidentified silent disease. Just when I thought polio WAS vanquished.... murray [log in to unmask]