Besides the well-known severe respiratory signs, and the risk of long-term complications, researchers and public health officials have also reported both central and peripheral neurological complications.
Guillain-Barr syndrome is an autoimmune disorder in which a person’s immune system attacks the nerves, causing muscle weakness and occasionally paralysis. It can last for weeks or several years.
The disease is relatively rare (In the United States 3,000-6,000 people develop the condition every year) but can be severe.
The condition is triggered by an acute bacterial or viral infection. Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors have reported over 90 Guillain-Barr diagnoses following a possible COVID-19 infection.
However, whether COVID-19 is another potential infectious trigger or whether the reported cases are coincidental is unclear.
Using an international collection of Guillain-Barr syndrome patients known as the International GBS Outcome Study (or IGOS), researchers studied patients from January 30th until May 30th, 2020.
Some 49 Guillain-Barr syndrome patients were added to the study during this period from China, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
In this study, 22% of the Guillain-Barr syndrome patients included during the first 4 months of the pandemic had a preceding COVID-19 infection.
These patients were all over 50 years of age and experienced facial palsy, vision changes, weakness, altered sensation, and behavioral or cognitive (thinking) problems.
73% of the Guillain-Barr patients with a COVID-19 infection had increased inflammatory markers. All these patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for both Guillain-Barr syndrome and COVID-19.
However, researchers did not find more patients diagnosed with Guillain-Barr syndrome during the first four months of the pandemic compared to previous years.
This suggests that a strong association between a COVID-19 infection and Guillain-Barr syndrome is not likely but a COVID-19 infection may sometimes lead patients to develop Guillain-Barr syndrome.
Source: Medindia
For all the latest Health News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
