A new report provides the most conclusive evidence to date linking Zika virus to some cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes paralysis that is usually temporary, but in rare cases may be fatal.
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Since the Zika outbreak in the Americas began previous year, it has sparked epidemics in about 40 countries, of which eight have reported cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome possibly connected to Zika.
“Public health officials, neurologists and critical care and emergency medicine specialists need to be alert to the likely rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome cases that will occur in other parts of the world that are now going through epidemics of acute Zika infection”, Willison said.
French Polynesia experienced a major Zika outbreak between October 2013 to April 2014, the largest outbreak globally at that time.
Now, analyses of blood samples from 42 patients diagnosed with the syndrome in French Polynesia during the Zika virus outbreak have suggested there could be a link.
While the patients did not test positive for Zika after hospitalization, blood tests showed they all had neutralizing antibodies against the Zika virus.
A 60-year-old woman who recently returned from a trip is the first case of Zika virus in Philadelphia, health officials said Monday. New research conducted in French Polynesia shows that in addition to its own symptoms, Zika virus may cause some people to develop Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), an immune and nervous system disorder that can lead to paralysis.
“A significant amount of work has still to be undertaken before the same conclusions can be extended to the Zika outbreak in South America”, said Peter Barlow, spokesman for the British Society for Immunology.
The mini-outbreak in that Pacific paradise offered the first ominous hint that the Zika virus is a pathogen capable of causing something more than just red eyes and a brief bout of muscle aches and fever.
Zika virus infections in pregnant women have been linked to a birth defect called microcephaly, a condition in which the brain and skull are significantly underdeveloped.
The investigate also deliberate either Guillain-Barre was a outcome of people being putrescent with both Zika and a associated pleasant disease, dengue, by comparing them with people who had Zika though no neurological symptoms.
In about 20% – 30% of cases, severe GBS can lead to respiratory failure, and about 5% of patients die.
Fontanet said it’s not possible to say what percentage of people in Latin America and the Caribbean will be infected with Zika or affected by Guillain-Barre. “They (Guillain-Barre patients) monopolized the bed for 35 days”. Of the patients observed in Tahiti, none died and three months after leaving the hospital, about 40 percent could walk unaided. But the disorder is rare, affecting only about one person in 100,000, according to the National Institutes of Health.
In a commentary in the same Lancet issue, two Australian experts said that the findings are convincing.
The authors are David Smith, MBBS, from University of Western Australia, and John Mackenzie, PhD, from Curtin University. Based on the assumption that two thirds of French Polynesia’s population was infected during the Zika virus outbreak, researchers put the overall risk of developing GBS at 2.4 for every 10,000 people infected with the virus.
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Because some vaccines can also prompt Guillain-Barre Syndrome, vaccine developers will need to be on the lookout for that complication as they test their candidates, he said.
