Welcome to the Post Polio Support Group Website

The POST POLIO SUPPORT GROUP is an organisation set up by Polio Survivors to assist their fellow survivors, particularly in relation to the Late Effects of Polio.  The Group was formed in 1993 and is run by a voluntary Board of Polio Survivors and friends, and is supported by four voluntary committees, other voluntary workers and an executive staff of three at the office in Dublin. Learn more about us.

Click to view countrywide contacts for Polio Survivors.

2009 RAFFLE RESULTS

I want to say how grateful we are from the support received from so many towards the 2009 Post Polio Support Group Raffle. We were delighted with the outcome as through your support the total of €17,000 was raised which will go directly in helping support our members.

Hugh Hamilton, Chairman PPSG

The winners were

• 1st Holiday Break Marriott Hotel Enfield

Hilary Gale of Co. Dublin

• 2nd Holiday Break Clifden Station House

Philip Conway of Co. Mayo

• 3rd Holiday Break Galway Menlo Hotel

Angela McGuire of Dublin

• 4th Case of Muscadet Wine

Tom Cullen of Co. Kildare

All winners have been notified and prizes forwarded

VACCINE BRINGS POLIO ELIMINATION WITHIN REACH

A new vaccine designed to combat the last two strains of polio is being used for the first time in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to eradicate the disease globally (Sam Lister writes).

The bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV) has proven 30 per cent more effective than other formulations at tackling the two strains. There were only 1,600 new cases last year, compared with more than 350,000 in 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries. Now only Nigeria, India and Pakistan remain at risk and bOPV will be made available to them early in the New Year (2010). The vaccine which protects against polio types 1 and 3, has been developed by the World Health Organisation, with additional funding from the British Government Its introduction is part of the Department for International Development’s £100 million drive to tackle polio over the next five years.

The department will announce today the release of £23 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Mike Foster, the International Development Minister, said: “New infections have been reduced by over 99 per cent.”

The TIMES, London 30/12/2009

PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE - USA - THE POLIO CRUSADE

The Public Broadcasting Service, funded by ther US Federal Government, commissioned and broadcast a series of programmes on polio and its medical, social & psychological effects on those it infected and affected in the middle of the 20th Century.

To watch these programmes click on this following link:- 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/polio/

You can also find the whole script/text on that site of the American Experience.

It is recommedded that you are able to use a high speed broadband link to view these fascinating programmes

VIDEO PRESENTATIONS OF BREATHING & SLEEP SYMPOSIUM -  USA

On November 1st there was a free symposium on Breathing & Sleep for people with neuromuscular disorders in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA. For European people a bit far to travel for just this one day. But the Salk Institute put videos of the presentations held at that symposium at their website www.poliotoday.org. You might be impressed by the quality of the presenters and their respective presentations. The information is extremely valuable for all polio survivors to see…not just those with known breathing problems.

People with neuromuscular conditions, like Post Polio Syndrome, often encounter difficulties seeking and obtaining proper respiratory care. Too often, primary care physicians, neurologists, and respiratory care professionals treat their respiratory problems as a lung issue, rather than as a muscle/nerve problem. And too often, sleep labs look only for obstructive sleep apnea and miss under-ventilation.

Maybe you will not only personally take a moment to view each segment of the presentations, but also you may want to put out a reminder for your members nationwide to tune in as their time permits as well. Or maybe you can use it at future PPS meetings and discuss the subject material together as a group. The more people who are exposed to it the better. And it wouldn’t hurt to share the link with medical professionals in each state and country as well.

HOW WOULD YOU OR YOUR FAMILY COPE?

Would you, or others with you, know how to explain your Post Polio condition if in another country, on holiday or work, where you are not fluent in the language? Would you know how to explain that the Polio you had makes you liable to respiratory problems if you need anaesthesia following an accident or illness when away from home; or that certain drugs have contra indicators to Post Polio Syndrome? How about the fact that you may be unconscious or unable to communicate?  To find the solution to this important question visit our Did You Know page - it might just save you and your loved ones much distress or even worse!

HUMAN RIGHTS: HISTORIC RATIFICATION BY THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY - 26 November 2009

The European Community has just ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Unprecedented step forward for the first human rights treaty ratified in the history of Europe and a great signal sent to all EU Members States.  In today’s session of the Council of the European Union, the European Community ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). This ratification represents a major policy shift toward enforcing human rights obligations and putting disability on top of the human rights agenda: this is the first time in the European Union history that the Community is going to accede to an international human rights treaty.

To read more courtesy of the European Disability Forum press release click here (MS Word)

WORLD POLIO DAY – 24 October 2009

To mark World Polio Day on 24th October 2009 , Radio Netherlands Worldwide (www.rnw.nl) in conjunction with the world renowned Prof. Frans Nollet and his department at the Amsterdam Medical Centre, made a video on Post Polio Syndrome (PPS). It has been posted on You Tube with English subtitles. You can view it on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_jpIatC_L4

RTE1 Outbreak Programme 16 June 2009 - "Living with Polio"

The third in the OUTBREAK series “Living with Polio” broadcast by RTE1 on 16 June 2009 looked back to the years of polio in Ireland. The programme featured three Irish polio Survivors, Donal O'Boyle (Donegal based music journalist), Rose Russell O'Donovan from Cork (and an active member of the Cork Support Group), and Willie O'Reilly (once known as "Little Willie", the mascot of a fifties' polio fund-raising campaign). The Salk vaccine was announced in 1955, but a public vaccination programme was not introduced in Ireland until 1958. It chronicled their experiences and told the story of their lives to the present day.

To learn more about this and the other five programmes in the series entitled “Killer Influenza 1918”, “Surviving Tuberculosis” , “The Legacy of Thalidomide” , “Measles – the Dormant Killer” and “Living with HIV and AIDS” visit the RTE website by clicking here. For those with broadband visit the RTE Player to see the programme again by clicking here.