12-24-2008, 10:03 AM
Adults can get it, though it is much more common in children, it probably would have been quite rare for a man of Roosevelt's age to have got it ( think he was in his thirties when he got it). The polio virus is mostly transmitted through contaminated matter in stools (poop). Not washing your hands after going to the toilet, or drinking contaminated water, would be ways of picking it up. that's why parents used to be fearful of their children going to swimming pools when the polio epedemic was at its height.
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