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Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...olio-1.4055557
Polio survivors fight for proper treatment of post-polio syndrome
'We were just cut loose': Polio survivors struggle as PPS often dismissed, misdiagnosed
By Donna Carreiro, CBC News Posted: Apr 04, 2017 6:39 PM CT Last Updated: Apr 05, 2017 12:28 PM CT
The last remaining survivors of North America's worst polio epidemic say they are living out its grim legacy ? post-polio syndrome ? with a medical community that doesn't know enough about the syndrome or the epidemic that caused it.
"I tell a doctor I had polio as a child, he'll just look at me with a blank stare, like 'so what?'" Altona resident Al Giesbrecht said. "You might as well call it X-Y-Z disease because it has no meaning."
Giesbrecht, who contracted polio in 1952, is one of an estimated 16,000 remaining survivors across Canada living with post-polio syndrome, a neurological disorder that targets up to 60 per cent of polio survivors decades after their original bout with the virus.
Some symptoms are inconvenient, like the midday fatigue dubbed the "polio wall." Others are life threatening, like the inability to swallow which leads to choking, even on one's own saliva...
Polio survivors fight for proper treatment of post-polio syndrome
'We were just cut loose': Polio survivors struggle as PPS often dismissed, misdiagnosed
By Donna Carreiro, CBC News Posted: Apr 04, 2017 6:39 PM CT Last Updated: Apr 05, 2017 12:28 PM CT
The last remaining survivors of North America's worst polio epidemic say they are living out its grim legacy ? post-polio syndrome ? with a medical community that doesn't know enough about the syndrome or the epidemic that caused it.
"I tell a doctor I had polio as a child, he'll just look at me with a blank stare, like 'so what?'" Altona resident Al Giesbrecht said. "You might as well call it X-Y-Z disease because it has no meaning."
Giesbrecht, who contracted polio in 1952, is one of an estimated 16,000 remaining survivors across Canada living with post-polio syndrome, a neurological disorder that targets up to 60 per cent of polio survivors decades after their original bout with the virus.
Some symptoms are inconvenient, like the midday fatigue dubbed the "polio wall." Others are life threatening, like the inability to swallow which leads to choking, even on one's own saliva...