Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacte

[Emily]

Re: Sonora and Mexicali, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Re: Sonora and Mexicali, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Alert, I haven't been following this closely, but your last post seems to support your concern about this GBS outbreak possibly being caused by a campylobacter pathogen that has a higher than usual number of cases GBS following infection. (6 out of 36 in Yuma.)

Here's a CDC article from 2009 looking at individual c. jejuni strains possibly being more related to GBS outcomes than other strains.

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/15/8/1315.htm
Volume 15, Number 8–August 2009
Letter
Campylobacter jejuni HS:23 and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Bangladesh

I wonder if the drought conditions might have led to a GBS related strain becoming more dominant than usual in the affected areas, and/or promoted a mutation in a strain there that has made it more likely to cause GBS.

ETA:
I found this article about food poisoning cases increasing in Australia during a drought in 2007. (But they don't mention a rise in GBS per c. jejuni cases.)

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/drought-fires-up-food-bugs/story-e6freo8c-1111113056478
Drought fires up food bugs
From: The Advertiser
February 25, 2007 11:30PM

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora and Mexicali, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Re: Sonora and Mexicali, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Baja California would be the third Mexican state affected, after Sonora and Mexicali.

http://www.expreso.com.mx/index.php...-guillain-barre&catid=12:hermosillo&Itemid=29

Spanish to English translation

Continue investigations Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 22:23
Pearl J. E-mail Noriega. Share. HERMOSILLO, SON .- After a few weeks ago as positive were revealed eight cases of people suffering from Guillain-Barr? syndrome in San Luis Rio Colorado, the Secretary of Health stated that the unit is sharing information with Centers for Epidemiology of the United States to establish a mechanism of action.


Gustavo L?pez Caballero explained that about 18 cases that have occurred in Sonora, Baja California and Arizona, they were still studying so unusual in number and frequency.

He added that the only common factor has been identified among patients is that they all had a diarrheal box before showing some symptoms of the syndrome, but further research binationally what could have been the cause, and based on these results to know how to act.

L?pez Caballero stated that as it is known that first showed pictures diarrhea, the "batteries of the Secretariat" have focused on the handling of food and water, so that lower intestinal infections, "which somehow relate with Guillain-Barre syndrome. "

The Secretary of Health stated that there have been more people infected so far and said the Arizona-Sonora participation continues, as well as national epidemiology staff that has been in contact, the Epidemiology Research Center in Atlanta has follow up these cases.

 

[Tonka]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://conexiontotal.mx/2011/07/15/pierde-aneth-batalla/
Spanish to English translation


Aneth loses battle
July 15, 2011 [12:14]
Mireya Ben?tez / Matamoros

Related News:
Receive total support Aneth
Get help from Brownsville Aneth Race
Aneth requires medication to walk

Matamoros, Tamaulipas .- "God only knows why he does things," were the words of Maribel's mother, the little Aneth Morales Ortega, who sadly lost his battle against death during the Thursday morning.

And that is the least suffered an infection in his lungs as a result of Guillain-Barr? syndrome who suffered for several days and kept her bedridden.

Erika Marquez, Aneth aunt, said that despite the superhuman effort that made the doctors, her niece could not be saved.

"We were already aware of the disease in Aneth, we knew the situation was delicate because doctors already know we had done, but still threw all forward and supported us in everything we needed, always trying to save the life of my niece, but maybe God was missing an angel and so decided to call it, "he said.

"We always leave it in the hands of God, we receive much support from the Governor Egidio Torre Cant?, the Health Secretary, Dr. Norberto Trevi?o Garcia, director of the General Hospital 'Dr. Alfredo Pumarejo, "Dr. Jose de Jesus Ramirez Deputy Daniel Sampayo, Dr. Cruz Reyna, Dr. Marco Antonio Casta?eda and Dr. Armando Holly, thank you very much to all of them, name them because I want people to know that without them the help would not have been possible, "said the woman.

THE FUNERAL
Marquez said the remains of Aneth will take place this day in the premises of the Municipal Funeral Home, later to be buried in the Santa Cruz cemetery.

It should be remembered that it was July 3 when Aneth was admitted to the pediatric ward of General Hospital 'Dr. Alfredo Pumarejo 'because she suffered an injury to the spinal cord, so I needed medication gamma globulin, which has a cost of around 3 000 pesos.

Given this situation, his parents saw the need to seek the support of the community to buy the medicine because they are low income. It was then that associations such as Caritas of Matamoros and Brownsville Raza joined the noble cause to put their two cents, thus making the small doses needed to receive.

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://conexiontotal.mx/2011/07/15/pierde-aneth-batalla/
Spanish to English translation


Aneth loses battle
July 15, 2011 [12:14]
Mireya Ben?tez / Matamoros

Related News:
Receive total support Aneth
Get help from Brownsville Aneth Race
Aneth requires medication to walk

Matamoros, Tamaulipas .- "God only knows why he does things," were the words of Maribel's mother, the little Aneth Morales Ortega, who sadly lost his battle against death during the Thursday morning.

And that is the least suffered an infection in his lungs as a result of Guillain-Barr? syndrome who suffered for several days and kept her bedridden.

Erika Marquez, Aneth aunt, said that despite the superhuman effort that made the doctors, her niece could not be saved.

"We were already aware of the disease in Aneth, we knew the situation was delicate because doctors already know we had done, but still threw all forward and supported us in everything we needed, always trying to save the life of my niece, but maybe God was missing an angel and so decided to call it, "he said.

"We always leave it in the hands of God, we receive much support from the Governor Egidio Torre Cant?, the Health Secretary, Dr. Norberto Trevi?o Garcia, director of the General Hospital 'Dr. Alfredo Pumarejo, "Dr. Jose de Jesus Ramirez Deputy Daniel Sampayo, Dr. Cruz Reyna, Dr. Marco Antonio Casta?eda and Dr. Armando Holly, thank you very much to all of them, name them because I want people to know that without them the help would not have been possible, "said the woman.

THE FUNERAL
Marquez said the remains of Aneth will take place this day in the premises of the Municipal Funeral Home, later to be buried in the Santa Cruz cemetery.

It should be remembered that it was July 3 when Aneth was admitted to the pediatric ward of General Hospital 'Dr. Alfredo Pumarejo 'because she suffered an injury to the spinal cord, so I needed medication gamma globulin, which has a cost of around 3 000 pesos.

Given this situation, his parents saw the need to seek the support of the community to buy the medicine because they are low income. It was then that associations such as Caritas of Matamoros and Brownsville Raza joined the noble cause to put their two cents, thus making the small doses needed to receive.

Another great find. This is not in any of the previously mentioned states, but is right on the US/Mexico border. Perhaps this is just a sporadic GBS case, or perhaps the outbreak has spread to a new area.

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

From an unrelated ProMED post today about a separate outbreak of Campylobacter infection about 2000 miles away in North Carolina linked to unpasteurized milk. Contrast this with what is seen in this thread:

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,89393

Most people who get campylobacteriosis recover completely within 2-5
days, although sometimes recovery can take up to 10 days. Rarely,
_Campylobacter_ infection results in long-term consequences. Some
people develop arthritis. Others may develop a rare disease called
Guillain-Barre syndrome that affects the nerves of the body beginning
several weeks after the diarrheal illness. This occurs when a person's
immune system is "triggered" to attack the body's own nerves resulting
in paralysis that lasts several weeks and usually requires intensive
care. It is estimated that approximately 1 in every 1000 reported
cases of campylobacteriosis leads to Guillain-Barre syndrome. As many
as 40 percent of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases in the USA may be
triggered by campylobacteriosis. Although _Campylobacter_ infection
does not commonly cause death, it has been estimated that
approximately 124 persons with the infection die each year.

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.kvoa.com/news/16-cases-of-rare-disease-appear-along-border/

16 cases of rare disease appear along border
Posted: Jul 19, 2011 11:25 AM

PHOENIX - Health department officials are working with authorities in Mexico to determine why sixteen cases of a rare disease have appeared in a small area along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome typically affects about 1 in 100,000 people. When 16 cases recently appeared in a small area along the U.S.-Mexico border, health officials on both sides of the border took notice. Local, state and federal health departments from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico and Yuma County started working to confirm the diagnosis and search for the underlying cause.

And while health officials from both counties often work together on issues like obesity and tuberculosis, this response marks the first time that health officials from the U.S. and Mexico have traveled across respective border to conduct a joint investigation. [Have we forgotten about H1N1??? - alert]

The symptoms of GBS include muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis, and it typically appears after someone has been sick with an infection, often with diarrhea. The key, ADHS officials say, is to find the root cause of the infection.

"We recognize that this apparent cluster of Guillain-Barr? Syndrome cases is of great concern to the community," said Shoana Anderson, Office Chief of Infectious Disease at ADHS. "One potential cause we've identified is Campylobacter bacteria, a commonly-identified organism that can precede Guillain-Barr?. While there have been more cases of Campylobacter this year, we have not yet positively confirmed that it is responsible for these Guillain-Barr? infections."

Sonoran health officials have began an outreach and education program for San Luis and Rio Colorado residents, and Arizona health officials have asked doctors to watch for signs of GBS and quickly contact their local health office to assist with the investigation.

GBS is not passed person-to-perosn, so the best thing is to prevent infections, which could lead to the disease. Good hand-washing habits and safe food preparation go a long way to prevent illnesses, ADHS officials say.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Source: http://www.azpm.org/health/story/2011/7/21/1258-officials-investigating-cross-border-outbreak/

Officials Investigating Cross-Border Outbreak
Story By Michel Marizco

July 21, 2011

Mexican and American health officials are trying to find the origins of an infection that?s now sickened 22 people on both sides of the U.S. Mexico border in the states of Arizona-Sonora. In the more severe cases, officials believe it?s left some people paralyzed.

It?s called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). It?s an infection that is not contagious and often begins from a more common intestinal infection. It?s considered rare: Only about 1 in every 100,000 people get it...

 

[Emily]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=5293&cat=News
KYMA - Jul 12, 2011

All of the runoff from the snow we had in the northwest last winter is headed south. It couldn't have come at a better time. "We've been in about a ten year drought in the Colorado River Basin," Davis continued, "we've been living off of stored water that's been coming in even as long as seven or eight years ago."

Maybe the fresh influx of snow melt is coming down the Colorado will clear things out if this is water related.

 

[Emily]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43860343/ns/health-food_safety/t/paralysis-tied-food-poisoning-border-towns/

Paralysis tied to food poisoning in border towns
Two dozen cases of Guillain-Barr? Syndrome probed in U.S. and Mexico
By JoNel Aleccia Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 7/25/2011 9:46:26 AM ET
[snip]
?It?s really attacking the nerves,? said Shoana Anderson, office chief of infectious disease at the Arizona Department of Health Services. ?All of the patients I?ve seen are not able to walk.?

Most of the victims, including 17 from Mexico and seven from the U.S., are adults who range in age from 40 to 70, although younger people also have been affected, Anderson said. Some patients have muscle weakness in their upper bodies as well as in their legs, she added. It's not clear how quickly they may recover.

Guillian-Barr? Syndrome, or GBS, typically affects only about 1 in 100,000 people, according to government health statistics, so a cluster of 24 cases is cause for alarm, officials said. Although the condition often resolves on its own, recovery can be long and painful. And in rare cases, the illness can cause permanent disability and even death. ....

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.kold.com/story/15144694/outbreak-of-rare-disease-along-arizona-border

Outbreak of rare disease along Arizona border
Posted: Jul 25, 2011 7:19 PM EDT
Updated: Jul 25, 2011 9:33 PM EDT
By Dan Marries -

SAN LUIS, AZ (AP) - The outbreak of a rare illness has Arizona health officials on alert.

Seven cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) have been reported in the southwester Arizona border cities of San Luis and Yuma.

The situation is even worse across the border in Mexico where another 17 case were found in and around San Luis Rio Colorado in Sonora.

The disease can cause muscle weakness and paralysis and is believed to be triggered by a food borne bacteria. A Mexican man who had a pre-existing chronic condition died from the illness earlier this month.

Shoana Anderson, chief of infectious diseases at the Arizona Department of Health Services, says the outbreak is suspected to have been triggered by a food borne illness known as campylobacter.

Guillain-Barre illness isn't contagious. The paralysis is temporary, but patients can suffer nerve damage.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2011.

-------

A similar post is here, but contains the (possible typographical error?) statement that there have been 124 cases.

http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/...ms-rise-arizona-mexico-campylobacter-outbreak

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/26/us-arizona-mexico-paralysis-idUSTRE76P7D620110726

Rare paralyzing infection sickens 24 on U.S.-Mexico border

Mexico »
By Tim Gaynor

TUCSON, Ariz | Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:41pm EDT

TUCSON, Ariz (Reuters) - A rare condition that can cause paralysis has sickened two dozen people in a small area straddling the Arizona-Mexico border, authorities said on Tuesday,

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported a cluster of 24 cases of the rare Guillain-Barre Syndrome in Yuma County in far western Arizona and neighboring San Luis Rio Colorado, in Mexico's northern Sonora state.

The rare condition, which normally affects only one in 100,000 people, causes muscle weakness and a creeping numbness in the arms and legs, leading in some cases to paralysis, respiratory problems and even death.

"It's very unusual ... With 24 cases in a small geographic area, that was really concerning to us," Joli Weiss, Arizona's food and water borne epidemiologist, told Reuters.

Of the two dozen cases so far reported, 17 were diagnosed in Mexico, and seven in Arizona.

Weiss said Arizona health authorities were working closely with Mexican federal and state counterparts in Sonora to find the cause of the outbreak, which is usually linked to a bacterial infection in food or water.

"We want to make sure that, if it is a water- or food-borne contamination, that we are able to control that and prevent it from occurring in other people," Weiss said.

"We are definitely looking at travel histories for these individuals, as well as what foods they have been (eating and if) they have they been to any large gatherings with any commonalities," she said.

The Arizona health department said the joint investigation into the cluster of cases was the first involving travel across the border by U.S. and Mexican health officials.

Health officials from Sonora have conducted outreach and education to residents in the San Luis Rio Colorado area. Arizona health officials have asked doctors and hospitals to watch for the signs of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and quickly contact their local health office with any possible cases.

Weiss said the condition is not passed from person to person. She recommended people living in or traveling to the region should wash their hands thoroughly after using the bathroom, as well as before cooking and eating.

"This sounds like it's an underlying food-borne or water-borne illness, and those are pretty easily prevented just by taking some of these measures," she said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.aztecanoticias.com.mx/no...asos-de-sindrome-de-guillain-barre-en-arizona

Notes investigate more cases of Guillain-Barr? syndrome in Arizona
Source Notimex

July 26, 2011

17:35 hrs

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Phoenix, USA .- Arizona Health Authorities are investigating several cases reported in the border with Mexico of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disease that damages the nervous system.



At least 25 residents in the communities of Yuma, Arizona, and San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, were diagnosed last month with the syndrome, according to the Arizona Department of Health.



The Ministry of Public Health of Sonora confirmed earlier this month about 20 cases of Guillain-Barr? syndrome in San Luis Rio Colorado, most of which was given treatment in their homes.



Shoan Anderson, director of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases, Arizona Health Department, explained that patients affected by this syndrome have muscle weakness in the upper body and legs.



Most cases occur in patients between 40 and 70 years old, but there are younger people and even teenagers, explained Anderson.



The specialist said there are few statistics on this rare medical condition that affects one in 100 000 people, according to health data from the U.S. government. The 25 cases reported in a month in one area are cause for alarm.



Anderson said that despite the effects that the disease inflicts on the patients, the condition often resolves on its own, though recovery can be long and painful, and in rare cases can cause permanent disability and even death.



Health authorities from both countries were investigating cases in a coordinated and suspect some connection with Campylobacter infection, which affects the gastrointestinal tract and is transmitted through contaminated food or water.



Some bacteria are sources of meat, especially chicken, water from contaminated sources, and milk or unpasteurized dairy products.



Officials confirmed that at least four patients were infected with the bacteria Campylobacter.

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://nortedigital.mx/noticias/nacional/30524/



Outbreak of rare disease reported in Mexico and the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------

The outbreak was detected between the states of Sonora and Arizona.
07/26/2011
11:24:06
Arizona .- An outbreak of a rare disease that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis have been reported in southwestern Arizona and the neighboring community of Mexico.

Seven cases of Guillain Barr? syndrome were reported in the communities of San Luis and Yuma, Arizona and 18 in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.

A Mexican man who had a chronic preexisting Barr? syndrome died three weeks ago.

Shoan Anderson, director of infectious diseases at the Department of Health Services of Arizona, said the outbreak seems to have been caused by a disease contracted through food known as campylobacteriosis.

Guillain Barr? syndrome causes the immune system attacks the nerves. The disease is not contagious, but patients may suffer neurological damage.

Patients of the 24 cases suffered varying degrees of paralysis.

The Guillain Barre syndrome is usually not fatal but can kill a person when their respiratory system becomes paralyzed and ventilation is not provided to the patient.

The number of new cases has been decreasing, Anderson said.

 

[alert]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n2163626.htm

Spanish to English translation

Health
Guillain-Barre Diarrhea is not transmissible Kelly
Organizaci?n Editorial Mexicana
July 27, 2011


Angelo Romano / Tribune San Luis

San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora .- They are to finish the investigation on 23 cases of people who had diarrhea with the phenotype of the autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, of which 17 of them were confirmed, 16 are currently stable and recovering, and one died, and was announced in an interview the director of the General Hospital, Dr. Sergio Barraza Kelly.

The health care referred to assert that this syndrome is an autoimmune disorder (the body's own immune system attacking itself) and it is unknown exactly what triggers the syndrome can occur at any age but is most common in people of both sexes between the ages of 30 and 50.

Often follows a minor infection such as pulmonary or gastrointestinal infection. Most often the signs of the original infection have disappeared before the onset of symptoms of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

In this disorder, the patient's health conditions get worse very fast, can take only a few hours to more severe symptoms, but the increased weakness for several days is common.

Muscle weakness or loss of muscle function (acute flaccid paralysis) affects both sides.

In most cases, the muscle weakness starts in the legs and then spreads to arms, it is called ascending paralysis, some of the symptoms are when patients may notice tingling, pain, leg or hand awkwardly together, if inflammation affecting the nerves to the diaphragm and chest, there is weakness in those muscles causing the person may need breathing assistance.

He said the general manager who is about to end this investigation and for which they have received valuable support from federal and state laboratories, to try to determine the origin and causes of these conditions, but emphasized that this disorder is unpredictable and difficult to identify their origin, as among patients there is no match in the food that caused the infection.

The fatality occurred died in Mexicali, Baja California, but it should be noted that this person had less potential to cope with the disorder because he had suffered from diabetes and old age, which put him at a disadvantage and could not survive the disorder.

It is important, said the director of the General Hospital, that citizenship sanluisina know that this disorder is not transmitted from person to person, so there is no reason for alarm.

 

[Emily]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Here's a case report of a man treated for GBS recently in a Phoenix area hospital, but doesn't say where the patient lives. They do have a preceding disease identified.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/the_valley/westvalley/article_a084c866-8083-53b2-b2b1-47bae4bc2dfc.html

Posted: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 1:30 pm

By JEFF DEMPSEY, DAILY NEWS-SUN
[snip]
Lajoie was afflicted with Guillain-Barr? syndrome, which came after a case of pneumonia.

 

[Emily]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

From Food Safety News:

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/poor-water-quality-suspected-in-gbs-outbreak/
Water Quality May Be Factor in GBS Outbreak
by Dan Flynn | Aug 16, 2011

[snip]
Contreras says the local-state-federal teams have interviewed more than 100 people involved with the cluster of GBS cases and the data are still being analyzed. Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, says there may have been more diarrheal illnesses due to reduced water quality.

The more common waterborne and foodborne pathogen called Campylobacter was identified as a precursor for some, but apparently not all, the GBS cases, according to Contreras. Only one in 1,000 cases of Campylobacter infection usually goes on to develop GBS.

While waiting for the all the data they created to be analyzed, the public health officials have persuaded those who run the water systems to increase chlorine levels....

 

[Missouriwatcher]

Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ? July 18, 2011
Contact: Laura Oxley, ADHS Public Information: (602) 542-1094
RARE CONDITION SPARKS BI-NATIONAL INVESTIGATION
Guillain-Barr? Syndrome (GBS) normally affects only about 1 in 100,000 people. So when sixteen cases recently appeared in a small geographical area along the U.S.-Mexico border, it caught the attention of health officials on both sides.

Local, state and federal health departments from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico and Yuma County, Arizona, U.S. started working to confirm the diagnosis and search for the underlying cause of the disease. While both states routinely work together on a multitude of Bi-national Public Health issues, such as obesity and tuberculosis, this particular response to an
emerging situation breaks new ground. This is the first time that public health officials from the U.S. and Mexico have traveled across their respective borders to conduct a joint investigation...

Health officials from Sonora have conducted outreach and education to residents in the San Luis Rio Colorado area. Arizona health officials have asked doctors and hospitals to watch for the signs of GBS and quickly contact their local health office with any possible cases...
http://www.azdhs.gov/diro/pio/news/

 

[alert]

Re: Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

Re: Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

The outbreak referred to by the above press release is here:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169725

 

[Missouriwatcher]

Re: Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

Re: Guillain-Barr? Syndrome Sparks Bi-National Investigation

Thank you Alert

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Sonora, Mexicali, and Baja California, Mexico and Wyoming and Arizona, United States: Unusual cluster of Guillain Barre cases - links to Campylobacter infection?

Source: http://newsok.com/article/3608756


OCU rowing coach Cam Brown battles rare disease

BY ED GODFREY, Staff Writer, egodfrey@opubco.com Oklahoman
Published: September 29, 2011

As Cam Brown lay paralyzed in a hospital bed at Princeton Medical Center in New Jersey, the Oklahoma City University men's rowing coach had just enough feeling left in his fingers to touch his phone and Google the rare illness that his doctors had just diagnosed.

It was Guillain-Barr? syndrome, a potentially lethal muscle disorder that occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks part of the nervous system...

...What triggers Guillain-Barr? syndrome is unknown. Doctors told Brown it could have been something he ate or drank. It likely had been dormant in his body for six weeks before symptoms appeared.

Brown had driven the OCU boats to San Diego for an event around that time. There had been an outbreak of Guillain-Barr? syndrome in two Arizona cities on the Mexican border.

Brown suspects that is where he might have contracted the disease, but he doesn't know for certain...