What is Guillain-Barre syndrome? The deadly disease on the rise in India
What is Guillain-Barre syndrome? The deadly disease on the rise in India
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The government has sent a team to Pune to assess the situation following the outbreak. One person is believed to have died in India in an outbreak of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) - a neurological disease that causes numbness, weakness and pain. The number of cases is rising, health officials said on Monday.
![[People wait in queues outside the office of the Chemists Association to demand necessary supply of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir during the pandemic, in Pune, India, Thursday, April 8, 2021]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/04/08/21/Virus_Outbreak_India_84363.jpg)
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 180 km (110 miles) 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 currently 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 said. 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. It affects 1,500 people in the UK every year, attacks the nerves, causing problems such as weakness, pain and numbness in the limbs. Most symptoms occur within days or weeks of a viral or bacterial infection and typically last a few weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
