Peru declares a national health emergency with one Guillain-Barré case per day

Peru is experiencing an unusually high incidence of Guillain-Barre syndrome. Since the beginning of this year, 182 cases have been recorded in the country, which equates to about one per day in 2023.

After four people died, the Peruvian government declared a national health emergency for 90 days. “There has been a significant increase in recent weeks, which obliges us as a country to take measures to protect the health and life of the population,” said the Minister of Health, Cesar Vasquez.

The measure allows the Ministry of Health to purchase immunoglobulins to treat patients with the disease in the next two years. The autoimmune syndrome manifests itself in progressive muscle weakness and two of its most common symptoms are tingling and lack of strength in the extremities of the body, but it can lead to death with respiratory paralysis.

The disease is usually caused by a previous stomach process, but in Peru’s case, suspicion fell on a bacterium called Campylobacter, which attacks the intestines. In 2018 and 2019, the country has already declared a state of emergency due to an outbreak of Guillain-Barré disease, a non-communicable syndrome.

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