What to do when polio symptoms return

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Survivors of polio who experience a return of muscle weakness and pain decades later often find themselves isolated without doctors familiar with their condition.

They will be able to learn more about their condition in a live webcast from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Sewickley, formerly the DT Watson Home for Children. After the webcast, survivors, friends and family can tour the building and see photos from the Watson Home’s time of treating children with polio.

Many children were paralyzed in a polio outbreak in the late 1940s and early ’50s. Vaccines were developed (Jonas Salk’s vaccine in 1955 had been tested at the Watson Home), and the disease was brought under control.

The webcast features a talk about post-polio syndrome by Richard L. Bruno, a research and clinical psychophysiologist. He began studying and treating polio survivors in 1982 and was director of the Post-Polio Institute at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital in 19982010. He is author of “The Polio Paradox” and is director of the International Centre for Polio Education (http://www.postpolioinfo.com).

The Polio Survivors Network (www.papolionetwork.org) has organized the event, and all proceeds from the $10 admission will go to the network. For more information and to reserve a spot, call 724-283-5814 or email papoliowebcast@gmail.com. The hospital is at 303 Camp Meeting Road, Sewickley.

Post-Polio Health International recommends that all polio survivors get regular medical evaluations. If general medical treatment doesn’t relieve post-polio symptoms, a specialist such as a physiatrist or neurologist can make a diagnosis and recommend a plan for managing a patient’s condition. More information about post-polio syndrome can be found at the website of Post-Polio Health International, http://www.post-polio.org/.