Polio, the condition that spurned innovations from Physiotherapy, vaccines, Intensive Care Units and Rehabilitation Medicine is one of those diseases we’re taught as “solved”, yet the people who survived Australia’s epidemics are walking into clinics right now with new weakness, pain, fatigue and loss of function. That gap between what we remember and what patients live with is where this conversation sits, starting with iron lungs and ending with the very practical question: how do we recognise post-polio syndrome and the late effects of polio before we dismiss them as ageing?
Join host Dr Gavin Nimon ( Orthopaedic Surgeon) who interviews three guests who each bring a different lens. Associate Professor Anupam Datta Gupta (Rehabilitation Medicine) breaks down how poliovirus moves from a gut infection to selective damage of anterior horn cells, and why the long compensation phase can collapse decades later. Michael Jackson (Polio Australia) shares what people affected by polio report about stigma, separation, and the day-to-day realities of pacing, equipment, and living with a progressive condition. Associate Professor Bruce Thorley (Doherty Institute, WHO Polio Reference Lab) explains where global eradication stands, why vaccination coverage still matters, and how Australia uses acute flaccid paralysis surveillance, laboratory testing and wastewater surveillance to stay polio-free.
We also trace polio’s outsized impact on modern healthcare: the shift from negative pressure ventilation to the birth of ICU, the evolution of orthotics and rehabilitation, and the role of Sister Elizabeth Kenny in reshaping physiotherapy. If you’re a GP, allied health clinician, or student, you’ll come away with red flags to ask about, the logic of diagnosis by exclusion, and management principles that prioritise function, safety, and quality of life.