Recent Examples on the WebPolio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under age 5 that is mainly spread through contact with human fecal matter. Hyder Abbasi, NBC News, 11 Aug. 2022 Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a viral disease that affects the nervous system.Fox News, 23 July 2022 Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is highly contagious and spreads via person-to-person contact even when the original contagious patient doesn't show symptoms. Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 22 July 2022 Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, which invades the nervous system and spreads mainly through contamination by fecal matter. Adela Suliman, BostonGlobe.com, 23 June 2022 Polio or poliomyelitis is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, which invades the nervous system and spreads mainly through contamination by fecal matter. Adela Suliman, Washington Post, 23 June 2022 Polio—short for poliomyelitis—was a mid-20th-century scourge that sickened tens of thousands of people and killed thousands each year. David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Nov. 2021 Polio or poliomyelitis is caused by the poliovirus — an infectious disease that for the majority of those infected causes no symptoms. Luke Peterson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 Sep. 2021 Paralytic poliomyelitis is no longer a problem in the U.S. because of development and use of effective vaccines against the poliovirus.Arkansas Online, 23 May 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from New Latin (in German context), from Greek poliós "pale gray (as of human hair), grizzled" + -o--o- + myelós "marrow" (alluding to the gray matter of the ventral horns of the spinal cord, which the disease affects) + New Latin -itis-itis — more at fallow entry 1, myelo-
Note: The word was apparently introduced by the German physician Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902), in a publication by his assistant, Anton Frey, "Aus der Klinik des Herrn Geh. Rath Prof. Kussmaul in Freiburg i. B. Ein Fall von subacuter Lähmung Erwachsener—wahrscheinlich Poliomyelitis anterior subacuta," Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 11. Jahrgang, No. 45 (9 November 1874), pp. 566-68. Compare earlier New Latin myelitismyelitis.