Colombia confirms first three deaths of patients infected with Zika virus
Patients had contracted a seemingly related disease that attacks the nervous system and causes paralysis, and another two deaths were still unconfirmed
Sibylla Brodzinsky
Guardian.com
Thursday 4 February
Colombia has confirmed the first three deaths of patients infected with the Zika virus who had contracted a seemingly related disease that attacks the nervous system and causes paralysis.
Alejandro Gaviria, the health minister, told the Guardian that another two deaths caused by the disease – known as Guillain-Barré syndrome – were still unconfirmed to be Zika-related.
Health officials in the country’s second city, Medellín, reported on Thursday that a man and a woman admitted from other areas died in the past week after presenting symptoms of Guillain-Barré, which include muscle weakness and paralysis. Another man died in late November. All three tested positive for the Zika virus.
Gaviria said Colombia has registered about 100 cases of GBS that are believed to be related to the Zika virus. Overall, Colombia has recorded more than 20,500 confirmed cases of Zika infection.
Guillain-Barré-related deaths are rare but Gaviria warned that recent cases of the disorder seen in Colombia have not responded to traditional treatments of immunoglobulin.
“Mortality is high,” Gaviria said in a phone interview a day after meeting with health ministers from around Latin America in Montevideo to address the crisis caused by the spread of Zika.
The Rest…HERE
