New evidence suggests that Zika virus may pose significant health risks

New evidence suggests that Zika virus may pose significant health risks

October 12, 2016 Source: Bio Valley

October 12, 2016 / Bio Valley BIOON / -- The latest study in South America shows that Zika virus, which was previously thought to be a health risk to adults, may pose a greater health risk. For the first time, the researchers found a disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome, probably due to Zika virus infection. Immunological and virological evidence indicates that there is an epidemiological association between Guillain-Barré syndrome and Zika virus infection in adults after Zika virus infection. The study was published in the latest New England Journal of Medicine.

Carlos Pardo, a professor of neurology and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, pointed out that in the early days of the outbreak of Zika virus in South America, he contacted him at the same time in Colombia and expressed his own patients with comprehensive diseases of the nervous system in their hospital. The surge of worry. Professor Pardo himself had a medical education in Colombia. Now he is an expert in neuroimmunity and infectious diseases. He himself has a good understanding of Guillain-Barré syndrome. He and his team provided technical support to doctors in Colombia, including blood testing for blood in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome, virus testing in cerebrospinal fluid, and virus testing in urine.

Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare but very serious disease that often occurs within a few days to weeks after a viral or bacterial infection, causing severe nerve damage. Common symptoms include muscle weakness, pain , sensory impairments, and convulsions in quite serious situations. Since mid-2015, Zika virus, which is raging in South America, is thought to cause an increase in the proportion of pregnant women who develop malformed newborns. Now scientists have issued another, there is a great correlation between the infection of Zika virus and the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome. In a group of 68 Geeland-Barre syndromes in Colombia, 18 people were detected as Zika virus carriers, while 18 people did not detect Zika virus in the urine, but they were able to There are traces of infection by Zika virus. More than half of the patients developed symptoms associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome within four to five days of mild symptoms following Zika virus infection.

Professor Pardo believes that the study first proposed that Zika virus may increase the judgment of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Scientists believe that the Zika virus can not be ignored, the previous conclusion that only pregnant women may have a large risk, may now be overthrown, Zika virus hidden risk may be much larger than we think.