‘Weakness in legs, could not get up’: Patients, their families on Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Bankar got a five-day course of Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IV-IG) and was discharged on January 24. Similarly, Pramod Garud, a lawyer, was grateful his son Harshad, 37, who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, was able to recover within five days and was discharged from Poona Hospital on January 25.

“My son had fever for a day or two and then weakness. But on January 19, when he did not feel better with medicines and felt a sudden weakness in his limbs, we were alerted and took him to the hospital. Initially we thought it must be a chikungunya viral infection but it was shocking when he simply could not move,” said Garud.

After five days of the medication and physiotherapy, Garud’s son was discharged and was slowly recovering. Bankar too said that he underwent physiotherapy and while his right leg was a little weak, he was feeling much better.

GBS is a rare neurological disorder in which a person’s immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system. Some cases are mild and others can lead to paralysis and can be life threatening, according to doctors. According to Maharashtra health department data, there are 111 persons who are clinically diagnosed with GBS and multiple tests are being conducted to confirm the diagnosis.

Field visits were conducted by National Institute of Virology and surveillance teams from Pune Municipal Corporation at the affected sites. Public health preventive measures like verifying chlorine content of water supplied by water tankers to housing societies was also undertaken. Of 25,578 homes surveyed till January 26, health department officials have identified 146 persons with acute diarrhoea and dysentery.

Patients have been undergoing treatment across 25 hospitals in Pune including 26 at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, 21 at Sassoon General Hospital, nine at Kashibai Navale Hospital, seven at Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital, Deccan, five at Poona Hospital and Research Centre, and four each at YCM and Bharati Hospital. The remaining patients are scattered across different hospitals.

Dr Sudhir Kothari, consulting neurologist at Poona Hospital and Research Centre, said that some patients have recovered and been discharged. Dr Sayali Kalbhor, senior resident in neurology at Poona hospital pointed out some of the patients were admitted for a week or so and are recovering well.

According to the latest data, authorities at Navale Hospital said 12 patients were admitted. Director Dr Arvind Bhore said that four patients required ventilator support and they were being managed.