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From: wtm@bunker.uucp (Bill McGarry)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Post Polio Syndrome
Message-ID: <14522@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 2 Oct 90 00:42:14 GMT
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Reply-To: wtm@bunker.uucp (Bill McGarry)
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Index Number: 10691

This information is from the National Organization for Rare
Diseases's database on Compuserve.  NORD is an organization that
specializes in information on rare diseases and will put you in contact 
with other people or parents of children with the same disease or
disorder.  Their address is:

       The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
       P.O. Box 8923
       Fairfield, CT 06812 (USA)
       Phone:    (800) 999-NORD
                 (203) 746-6518 (In CT)

NORD can also be reached on Compuserve.

NORD has information on some 500 rare disorders and also has
information on orphan drugs.

Post-Polio Syndrome occurs at least 10 years after a person has
been stricken by polio.  It is characterized by gradual
deterioration of muscle function and increased weakness which
usually occurs in the limbs that had been most severely affected by
polio.  Sometimes the disorder involves those muscles apparently
fully recovered or previously uninvolved, including muscles
necessary for respiration.  Other symptoms may include fatigue,
muscle pain and twitching (fasciculations).

The exact cause of Post-Polio syndrome has not yet been
identified.  Theories that the dormant polio virus may be
reactivated years after polio first occurs have been dismissed in
the absence of scientific proof.  Other theories that Post-Polio
patients appear to be aging more rapidly in certain parts of their
central nervous system than their peers are also unproven.
Recently, scientists determined that Post-Polio Syndrome is not a
form of Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

In a 1987 study of Post-Polio Syndrome patients, scientists found
evidence  that nerve cells in affected muscles may grow many small
sprouts from the message-transmitting axons of healthy nerve cells
during recovery from polio.  These sprouts take over the function
of neurons killed by the polio virus.  After years of functioning
beyond capacity, the nerve cells can weaken and  lose the ability
to maintain these sprouts, which then begin to shrink, and  the
whole muscle becomes weaker.  As a result of this discovery,
researchers  hope to develop an experimental treatment that may
improve sprouting of the  axons.

Other studies, such as investigating the presence of abnormal
proteins  in cerebrospinal fluid, and the effect of the polio virus
on nerve cells in  muscle fibers of Post-Polio patients.