1.
[syn: poliomyelitis, polio, infantile paralysis, acute anterior poliomyelitis]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Infantile paralysis \In"fan*tile pa*ral"y*sis\ (Med.)
An acute viral disease, affecting almost exclusively infants
and young adults, characterized by inflammation of the
anterior horns of the gray substance of the spinal cord. It
is attended with febrile symptoms, motor paralysis, and
muscular atrophy, often producing permanent deformities.
Called also acute anterior poliomyelitis, poliomyelitis
and polio. It is caused by any one of three polioviruses,
and by the end of the twentieth century had been almost
completely eradicated in developed countries by a widespread
campaign of immunization.
[Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
poliomyelitis
n 1: an acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve
cells of the brain stem and spinal cord [syn:
poliomyelitis, polio, infantile paralysis, acute
anterior poliomyelitis]