POLIOMYELITIS

A Guide for Developing Countries — including Appliances and Rehabilitation for the Disabled

R. L. HUCKSTEP C.M.G., Hon M.D. (NSW), F.T.S.,

M.A., M.D. (Cantab.), F.R.C.S. (Edin.), F.R.C.S. (Eng.), F.R.A.C.S. F.A.Orth.A.

Professor of Traumatic and Orthopaedic Surgery, Universities of Sydney and New South Wales, Sydney. Lately Foundation Professor of Traumatic and Orthopaedic Surgery and Chairman of the School of Surgery, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Director of Accident Services, Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals, Sydney, Australia. Foundation Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Makerere University, Kampala, and Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to Mulago, Mengo and all Missions Hospitals in Uganda, and to the Round Table Polio Clinic, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons of England. Corresponding Editor, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Journal of Western Pacific Orthopaedic Association and Injury.

Illustrations

Joyce F. Marriott N.D.D., A.T.D. (London) Lately Honorary Assistant to the Round Table Polio Clinic, Kampala Uganda.

Frank B. Price

DEDICATION — ‘To Crippled Polio Patients — Wherever they may be — In the hope that this book will enable many of them to walk, earn their own living, and take their rightful place in society’.

Poliomyelitis

Death before maturity is the usual fate of the untreated crawling crippled child in developing countries.

Most children with poliomyelitis, however, when upright and walking with supports, or following operation, are accepted by the community, educated by parents and relatives and employable when they reach maturity.

It is more economic to prevent 100 polio cases than to treat one hopelessly crippled child.

It is often quicker to straighten 100 deformed limbs by simple subcutaneous operations, than to treat a single patient by complicated procedures.

It costs less for 100 crawling paralysed children to walk in simple, locally made calipers and clogs than for one patient to be mobile in expensive imported appliances and boots.

It is essential to educate or rehabilitate patients in addition to making them mobile.

The final aim should be a patient returned to his own village or town, accepted and integrated into his own community, and earning his own living among his friends.

R.L.Huckstep

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE BOOK SOCIETY and CHURCHILL LIVINGSTONE

© 1997, WorldOrtho Inc.