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Which symptoms can occur in post-polio syndrome?
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polio
A health care worker giving a polio vaccine to a child in Katsina state, Nigeria, 2014.
Post-polio syndrome is a condition that can affect individuals years or even decades after their initial recovery from polio. It is not caused by a reactivation of the virus and is not contagious.123
The symptoms associated with this syndrome include:
- Muscle weakness: This may manifest as the onset of new weakness in limbs that were previously affected by the disease or in limbs that were not.12
- Pain: Patients often experience joint and muscle pain.13
- Fatigue: A general sense of exhaustion is a common characteristic.13
- Muscle atrophy: Some individuals may experience a wasting or loss of muscle mass in previously affected or different muscle groups.2
The condition is believed to arise from the long-term strain placed on nerve cells that survived the original infection, which may begin to deteriorate as a person reaches middle age. While there is no cure for post-polio syndrome, it can significantly impact an individual's mobility and quality of life.23