Indian state suspects first death from Guillain-Barre syndrome amid rising cases

MUMBAI - One person is believed to have died in India’s Maharashtra state in an outbreak of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) – a neurological disease that causes numbness, weakness and pain – and the number of cases is increasing, health officials said on Jan 27.

A total of 101 cases of GBS have so far been reported in the state, most of them in and around Pune city, which lies about 180km from the state capital and India’s financial hub Mumbai.

The state’s public health department said in a statement that one person had died in the city of Solapur and 16 patients were on ventilators.

A rapid response team visited the affected areas, it said.

“Citizens should not panic – the state’s health department is prepared to implement preventive and control measures,” the statement read.

A federal Health Ministry spokesperson said the government has sent a seven-member team to Pune to assess the situation following the outbreak.

The condition, in which the body’s immune system attacks nerves, can cause paralysis and even death.

Most symptoms occur within days or weeks of a viral or bacterial infection and typically last a few weeks, according to the World Health Organisation.

Most people recover fully from even the most severe cases of GBS, although some continue to experience weakness, the global health agency says.

“The exact cause is not known behind the sudden rise in GBS cases,” said Dr Avinash Bhondwe, the former president of the Indian Medical Association, Maharashtra, adding that GBS was a post-infective auto-immune disease.

“Auto-immune diseases are not communicable – it cannot spread from one patient to another. But the causative infection usually spreads.”

Drainage water gets mixed with potable water in some affected areas in Pune where water lines and drainage lines run side by side, leading to contamination. This could be among other possible reasons for the spike in GBS cases, Dr Bhondwe said. REUTERS