Co-morbidities are other medical diagnoses and conditions, in addition to previous paralytic poliomyelitis, that may contribute to and compound a person’s health problems and cause a decrease in the ability to carry out life’s functional activities. For example, cancer or kidney disease may develop in a survivor of polio as a co-morbid condition and make the disabling symptoms of fatigue and weakness worse than they would be expected to be among people with only one of these conditions. Co-morbidities (also known as Secondary Conditions) may be related to previous paralytic polio such as scoliosis, osteoarthritis, and aspiration pneumonia, or unrelated (coincidental) such as cancer and type 2 diabetes.
It should be noted that polio survivors can develop the same diseases as the general population based on genetics, lifestyle behaviors, and circumstances. Co-morbid conditions can be the cause for new weakness and fatigue in polio survivors and be mistaken for Post-Polio Syndrome. This can be very important because accurate diagnosis of treatable serious conditions may be overlooked. (See “What Having Had Polio Causes, Might Cause and Does Not Cause”).