Scientists find Zika increases risk of rare neurological illness

Mar 02, 2016, 05:12

Blood tests confirmed Zika infections in all GBS patients, with a median time between Zika virus infection and neurologic symptoms of 6 days and 88% experiencing symptoms. But 38% had to be admitted to the intensive care unit, and 12% required breathing assistance. Scientists say the hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting a variety of unsafe illnesses. According to the new study, that rate climbed to 24 cases per 100,000 during the French Polynesia outbreak.

The study doesn't shed any light on whether Zika is also responsible for the spike in the number of babies born in Brazil with abnormally small heads, or microcephaly.

Arnaud Fontanet, DrPH, one of the study coauthors, said in a Pasteur Institute news release today: "This indicates that the regions which are affected by the Zika virus epidemic are likely to see a significant increase in the number of patients with serious neurological complications, and when possible, should increase the capacity of healthcare facilities to receive patients needing intensive care".

The new evidence comes from a study published Monday in The Lancet, in which researchers analyzed 42 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome that were diagnosed during a Zika outbreak in French Polynesia from 2013 to 2014.

Blood tests showed that 100 percent of the people with Guillain-Barre syndrome showed a specific immune system response for Zika.

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The CDC also stresses that patients should avoid being bitten by mosquitoes after they have already been infected - this can result in more mosquitoes carrying the virus, which will cause greater danger to others.

He said the study should put to rest any question of a link between Zika virus and GBS. But only a few carried certain biological markers that are the hallmark of Guillain-Barre.

Before reaching South America previous year, the mosquito-spread Zika had triggered outbreaks in the South Pacific on Yap island in Micronesia and in French Polynesia, including its largest island, Tahiti.

In the study, doctors compared patients with Guillain-Barre to those hospitalized for other reasons.

By itself, Zika is no more threatening than a bad cold or a mild case of the flu.

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Brazil said it has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly and considers majority to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., MPH, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), said the well-conducted study answers important questions, such as the link to Zika and apparently only Zika-and raises additional ones.

If the estimates drawn from French Polynesia prove to apply to South and Central America, said Osterholm, the current Zika outbreak could claim lives on a par with the Ebola virus in Africa. Eventually, paralysis develops. It isn't clear what caused GBS, but it is known to develop after various kinds of infections.

That's a significant detail, according to an accompanying commentary from researchers David Smith at the University of Western Australia and John Mackenzie of Curtin University, also in Australia. That will be complicated by the fact that Guillain-Barre is a very rare reaction to vaccines.

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