ACUTE EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS COMPLICATING PREGNANCY

Abstract

The occurrence of epidemic poliomyelitis during pregnancy raises several questions. How often does it occur? Should the patient go to term and, if she does, what will be the effect on the labor? Will a viable infant be born? If so, what are the probabilities of intra-uterine infection? There is no unanimity of opinion as to the frequency of poliomyelitis occurring during pregnancy, nor as to the susceptibility of gravid women to the disease. Aycock¹believes that poliomyelitis occurs more frequently in the latter part of pregnancy than would normally be expected if the condition had not predisposed to the disease. Jungeblut and Engle²state that early pregnancy and early infancy are the high-water marks of natural resistance to poliomyelitis. The same authors examined the blood of ten women at various stages of pregnancy and found an apparently higher individual virucidal titer than is commonly found in normal