1. Increased rates of Guillain-Barré syndrome associated with Zika virus outbreak in the Salvador metropolitan area, Brazil.
- Author
-
Styczynski, Ashley R., Malta, Juliane M. A. S., Krow-Lucal, Elisabeth R., Percio, Jadher, Nóbrega, Martha E., Vargas, Alexander, Lanzieri, Tatiana M., Leite, Priscila L., Staples, J. Erin, Fischer, Marc X., Powers, Ann M., Chang, Gwong-Jen J., Burns, P. L., Borland, Erin M., Ledermann, Jeremy P., Mossel, Eric C., Schonberger, Lawrence B., Belay, Ermias B., Salinas, Jorge L., and Badaro, Roberto D.
- Subjects
- *
GUILLAIN-Barre syndrome , *ZIKA Virus Epidemic, 2015-2016 , *ZIKA virus , *HEADACHE , *FEVER , *MYALGIA - Abstract
In mid-2015, Salvador, Brazil, reported an outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), coinciding with the introduction and spread of Zika virus (ZIKV). We found that GBS incidence during April–July 2015 among those ≥12 years of age was 5.6 cases/100,000 population/year and increased markedly with increasing age to 14.7 among those ≥60 years of age. We conducted interviews with 41 case-patients and 85 neighborhood controls and found no differences in demographics or exposures prior to GBS-symptom onset. A higher proportion of case-patients (83%) compared to controls (21%) reported an antecedent illness (OR 18.1, CI 6.9–47.5), most commonly characterized by rash, headache, fever, and myalgias, within a median of 8 days prior to GBS onset. Our investigation confirmed an outbreak of GBS, particularly in older adults, that was strongly associated with Zika-like illness and geo-temporally associated with ZIKV transmission, suggesting that ZIKV may result in severe neurologic complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF