Polio Awareness Month

WHEREAS, polio survivors experience Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS), the unexpected and often disabling symptoms, overwhelming fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle and joint pain, sleep disorders, heightened sensitivity to anesthesia and pain, cold intolerance and difficulty swallowing and breathing; and

WHEREAS, these disabling symptoms often occur after the acute poliovirus infection; and

WHEREAS, PPS can be managed and even prevented if polio survivors conserve energy, reducing their number of remaining poliovirus damaged neurons and weakened muscle joints; and

WHEREAS, air travel makes all Americans vulnerable to infection by an imported poliovirus and therefore all Americans must continue to be vaccinated:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert Bentley, Governor of Alabama, do hereby proclaim September 2014, as

Polio Awareness Month

in the state of Alabama.