Post-Polio Syndrome Underpins Upcoming NPSA Presentation
For Immediate Release
OMAHA, Neb. – May 25, 2026. Author of Polio: Then, Post-Polio, And The Survivors, Michael Kossove, will present “We’re Still Here,” for the Nebraska Polio Survivors Association, NPSA, June 7, from 2 – 4 p.m. CDT, via Zoom.
NPSA events are open to polio survivors, those experiencing post-polio syndrome, caregivers, family members, the medical community and the public. To attend the event and obtain Zoom access to the go to the NPSA contact page and request a link.
Kossove’s book offers a comprehensive look at the story of polio, both past and present through the lens of deeply personal experiences as a polio survivor himself and from a scientific perspective.
While there is no definitive number of polio survivors in the U.S., it is estimated that 300,000 to 400,000, and millions worldwide, are currently, or at risk of, experiencing what Kossove calls, “Part 2 of Polio; post-polio syndrome (PPS).”
“These survivors now experience a greater disability than the original polio,” Kossove said.
Event attendees will learn the history of the disease and how it affected the survivors in the beginning. Kossove said many still do not know of the different types of polio, parental attitudes toward a disabled child, growing up as a polio survivor and the support groups that began in the 1980's to deal with PPS.
Poliomyelitis, caused by the polio virus, was once one of the most feared infectious diseases of the 20th century.
“While many individuals survived the acute infection, a significant number later developed PPS,” Kossove said, “It is a condition characterized by new muscle weakness, fatigue, and pain decades after recovery.”
Kossove points out in a winter 2026 “Post-Polio Health” article he wrote that while polio has “faded into history” due to widespread vaccination programs, elimination does not mean eradication.
“Increasingly, public health officials, epidemiologists and polio survivors themselves are asking a troubling question,” he said. Could polio return to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other developed nations? The uncomfortable answer is yes – under certain conditions it could.”
Kossove has researched polio and PPS for over 40 years and has spoken to polio support groups and conferences across the U.S. in person and on Zoom. He holds certifications as “Specialist in Public Health and Medical Microbiology” from the National Registry of Microbiologists and the American Society for Clinical Pathology.
“Allowing polio to return would not be a failure of science; it would be a failure of memory,” Kossove said.
Professor Emeritus, and now Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Touro University, School of Health Sciences in New York, Kossove studied virology under Dr. John Winsser, a team leader with Dr. Albert Sabin when Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine (OPV)
“For those of us who lived through polio, the word is not abstract,” Kossove said. “It is not historical. It is personal.”
###
NPSA was founded in 1984 by Nancy Baldwin Carter, a polio survivor and author. The organization was the first of its kind in the nation. Its goal is to help survivors and their families, as well as members of the medical community, understand post-polio syndrome and treatments. The mission is to educate the public and the health care community concerning polio and post-polio syndrome and to respond to the needs of individuals who suffer from the syndrome through group meetings, educational programming and newsletters, financial and other support of research concerning the syndrome and the circulation of research results.