Polio altered their future: remembering a time before vaccination

Polio altered their future: remembering a time before vaccination

Éliane Fuseau was born in a small village in rural France in 1948. When she was 3 years old, she contracted poliomyelitis (polio), a highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which largely affects children under 5 years of age. While most poliovirus infections are asymptomatic, others lead to flu-like symptoms, followed within hours to days by weakness and acute flaccid paralysis of the muscles. For Éliane, the infection led to paralys…