infantile paralysis

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• (Med.) An acute viral disease, affecting almost exclusively infants and young adults, characterized by inflammation of the anterior horns of the gray substance of the spinal cord. It is attended with febrile symptoms, motor paralysis, and muscular atrophy, often producing permanent deformities. Called also acute anterior poliomyelitis, poliomyelitis and polio. It is caused by any one of three polioviruses, and by the end of the twentieth century had been almost completely eradicated in developed countries by a widespread campaign of immunization.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells of the brain stem and spinal cord