Previous month I got a bad news about my brother-in-law, he is suffering form an unknown disease from the past 15 days. Even the doctors at the local hospitals are unaware of the disease and symptoms. Here’s how it all started, from 2-3 days he was feeling sever pains in his hands and legs. First of all his family thought it might be the regular leg pains so they massages him with some local ointment and waited for the pains to get relieved. But the pain was still there. After a week he was not able to walk and was not even able to feel his hands and legs. Now this is a serious situation, the parents thought and admitted him to the local hospital. But it’s of no use. The doctors were unaware of the disease. Then they took him to the city hospital which has good doctors. There he was diagnosed with a very rare disease GB Syndrome, which has no cure at present. It’s a very rare disease one or two in a million. Now after a month still he is not able to walk and feel his body parts. Only thing which is working is his neck and face. But doctors warned of situation can be worse if his breathing system stops working.
I was really very sad and was afraid after knowing his condition. Even I heard about this disease for the first time so I thought why not tell you all about this disease in detail, its symptoms, its support groups all over the world and what to do to partially cure this disease. The information here is taken from various medical magazines and journals and the cure mentioned here is not mine but it’s used by the doctors all over the world to partially cure this disease.
Disease Name: Guillain-Barré syndrome
Sign & Symptoms:
1. Severe pain in the lower back.
2. Weakness of the lower limbs
3. Rapidly progresses in an ascending fashion, usually over periods of hours to days.
4. Arms and facial muscles also become affected.
5. Frequently, the lower cranial nerves may be affected.
6. Very slow heart rate or low blood pressure
7. Respiratory difficulties.
Cause:
Main cause of GB syndrome is still unknown. About 60 percent of the cases it is caused by an infection affecting either the lungs or the digestive tract precedes the disorder. Scientists are still unknown of the reason that how an infection can lead to Guillain-Barre syndrome for some people and not for others. In most of the cases it appear to occur without any triggers.
It affects patients immune system, which usually only attacks alien material and invading organisms but it begins attacking the nerves that carry signals between our body and the brain. More clearly, the nerves protective covering which is called "myelin sheath" is damaged and this cause the interferece with the brain signaling process, that then cause weakness, numbness or paralysis.
Treatment:
As scientist says, there is no known cure for this disease. But below two treatments have been proved to be fastening the recovery and reduce the severity of the disease:
Plasmapheresis: Also known as plasma exchange. this is a type of "blood cleansing" in which damaging substance is removed from the blood. Plasmapheresis consists of removing the liquid portion of the blood (plasma) and separating it from the actual blood cells. The blood cells are then put back into the body, which produces more plasma to make up for the plasma which has been removed. But this is till not clear why this treatment works.
Intravenous immunoglobulin: In this treatment Immunoglobulin is taken from healthy from blood donors. High doses of Immunoglobulin contains antibodies that can block the damaging antibodies that may contribute to Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Famous people who suffered from this disease:
- · Andy Griffith, actor on Andy Griffith Show, and Matlock. He contracted Guillain-Barré in 1983.
- · Rachel Chagall, actress, contracted GBS in 1982. In 1987 she portrayed Gabriela Brimmer, a notable disabilities activist.
- · Joseph Heller, author, contracted GBS in 1981. This episode in his life is recounted in the autobiographical No Laughing Matter, which contains alternating chapters by Heller and his good friend Speed Vogel.
- · Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president. In 2003, a peer-reviewed study found that it was more likely that Roosevelt's paralytic illness was actually Guillain-Barré syndrome, not poliomyelitis.
- · Markus Babbel, former international footballer, contracted GBS in 2001, following a period suffering from the Epstein-Barr virus. He lost almost an entire year of his footballing career between the two illnesses and never again demonstrated the same level of ability that won him over 50 caps for Germany.
- · Serge Payer, Canadian-born professional hockey player. After battling and overcoming the syndrome, Serge set up the Serge Payer foundation, which is dedicated to raising money for research into new treatments and cures for Guillain-Barré syndrome.
- · Scott Klopfenstein, trumpeter and vocalist for the ska-punk band Reel Big Fish.
Support Groups:
- · GBS/CIDP Foundation International
- · Information from the Guillain-Barré Syndrome Support Group (UK)
- · Information from GBS Association of New South Wales (AU)
- · miller_fisher at NINDS
- · Guillain-Barré syndrome and Miller-Fisher syndrome at GPnotebook
- · http://www.gbs-cidp.org/countrys/india.htm
- · http://www.gbs-cidp.org/liaisoncountrys.htm
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