Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Zika
The Zika virus commanded the attendion of officials around the world in late 2015 as it reached near-epidemic status in more than 30 countries from South America and Latin America to Puerto Rico. For most people, the virus is so mild the symptoms are not noticeable. But a disturbing increase in microcephaly – normally a rare birth defect that results in small heads and often incomplete brain development – added urgency to the outbreak and convinced the World Health Organization in late 2015 to declare an international public health emergency. The mosquitoes known to spread Zika also are capable of spreading other diseases that are on the increase in many countries where the Zika virus is active. One of those is Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Guillain-Barre statistics. In the Bahia state in Brazil, which has perhaps been the country hardest hit by Zika, the cases of Guillain-Barre increased by nearly 20 percent in 2015, even though most of those cases were not reported until the end of the year. As of early February 2016, no direct link between GBS and Zika had scientifically been established. But officials pointed out that Guillain-Barre also was an issue in the Zika outbreak in French Polynesia two years ago.
Facts about Guillain-Barre. Scientists know fairly little about GBS, an auto-immune disorder in which a person’s immune system attacks a portion of the body’s peripheral nervous system. In most cases, symptoms begin first in the legs, with tingling or weakness that progresses to the arms and elsewhere in the upper body. For some people, the condition can temporarily disable muscles and lead to paralysis. The effects are generally temporary; however, without proper medical care, GBS can interfere with breathing or affect blood pressure. Even in the most serious cases, patients generally recover from GBS, although some retain some element of weakness. It can take months to completely recover from GBS.
Treatment for Guillain-Barre. There is no cure for GBS; however, doctors have a number of fairly effective ways to speed a patient’s recovery and make the symptoms less severe. Patients with GBS often are treated in a hospital, sometimes in the intensive care unit. That way, heart function can be monitored carefully and the patient can be put on a respirator in serious cases in which GBS affects breathing. Many doctors are finding that plasma exchange – a process in which whole blood is removed from the body, and the red and white blood cells are separated from the plasma and then returned to the body without the plasma – seems to significantly help GBS patients.