poliomyelitisn.
/ˌpəʊlɪəʊˌmʌɪəˈlʌɪtᵻs/, U.S. /ˈˌpoʊlioʊˌmaɪəˈlaɪdᵻs/ Medicine.
An endemic or epidemic infectious disease of humans caused by a poliovirus (or occasionally another enterovirus), in which there is a minor illness with fever, malaise, headache, etc., followed in a proportion of cases by major neurological illness (viral meningitis, sometimes with involvement of the grey matter of the central nervous system leading to flaccid paralysis of the limbs and, rarely, respiratory paralysis).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > convulsive or paralytic disorders > [noun] > palsy or paralysis > poliomyelitis
infantile paralysis1843
poliomyelitis1878
polio1911
1878 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 75 411 The case was..one of acute polio-myelitis.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 798 The facial nucleus was affected by acute poliomyelitis.
1934 R. W. Fairbrother Handbk. Filterable Dis. vi. 95 The poliomyelitis virus only produces spontaneous disease in man.
1955 Sci. News Let. 16 Apr. 242/2 No matter how it is called, poliomyelitis, infantile paralysis, or polio for short, it is a scourge that has long been a crippler and killer.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 12 Aug. 357/1 All children receive BCG vaccine within 72 hours of birth; smallpox vaccine within one year; poliomyelitis vaccine within one year (and again at 30 years); [etc.].
1972 B. A. Curtis et al. Introd. Neurosci. xxii. 590/1 With the development of effective vaccines..poliomyelitis has become a preventable disease.
1995 Independent 17 Oct. (Suppl.) 15/2 Three other communicable diseases..could realistically be rendered extinct in the near future. These are poliomyelitis, measles and dracunculiasis.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1878