News and Events

NEWS: posted 09/03/2010

People with Post Polio Syndrome

A Scottish politician is throwing his weight behind highlighting the disease that blights his life.

Mike Pringle MSP has spoken for the first time about post polio syndrome –
Is a little known condition that strikes polio sufferers decades after being diagnosed with the initial virus.

The 63 year old’s health has deteriorated over the last couple of years leaving him unable to walk more that 100 yards unaided.

Mike Pringle said, “I was diagnosed with polio when I was four, I spent many months in an iron lung and at one point doctors thought I might be paralyses from the neck down. I eventually emerged with damage to my right leg and had to wear a calliper through my childhood When I was 16 surgeons at he Princess Margaret Rose Hospital Edinburgh completely changed my life when they carried out a leg lengthening operation to lengthen my right leg by two and a half inches, it was a breakthrough as it allowed me to take part in sports for the first time and I started playing badminton and squash, former banker Mike was left with only a slight limp – then polio struck again.

Mike states “however in my early fifties I started to get mobility problems in my right leg. I saw a specialist in Edinburgh who diagnosed post polio syndrome. I was lucky this doctor was something of a pioneer not only in Scotland but in Britain. Since then my condition has got worse, particularly over the past year, “I’m more or less unable to walk without a stick. “There’s no cure and unlikely to be one However there will be many who will suffer from this condition but won’t know about it.”

The campaign group who represents polio survivors in Scotland, the Scottish Post Polio Network, say the illness is largely ignored north of the border. They’ve highlighted their frustration in getting a diagnosis and say the NHS has no guidelines on treatment, with many health professionals not even accepting the syndrome exists. They also say there is little knowledge of how to treat the disease and its many and varied symptoms.

The Scottish Government have set up a working group that will report to the Scottish Medicines and Scientific Advisory Committee. It will make recommendations aimed a raising awareness and improving patient care across all clinical specialities for people who are experiencing the late effect of polio of post polio syndrome.

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