In a follow-up to a report last week, Peru health officials (computer translated) have recorded an increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) cases during the first four months of 2018.

Image/Alvaro1984 18
Image/Alvaro1984 18

According to Minister of Health, Silvia Pessah Eljay, 42 cases compatible with GBS have been reported to date.

The statistics reveal an upward curve compared to the figures recorded between January and April 2016, when 22 cases were presented. Likewise, in the same period of 2017, 24 cases were reported, and in the first four months of 2018, 42 were registered.

The Health Ministry states they are able to efficiently attend to suspected cases of GBS. From the first moment that the suspected cases of the Guillain Barré Syndrome were known, the institutions that make up the National Health System carried out the immediate actions that guarantee an integral attention to the people who show symptoms of this immunological disease and started the investigations that will determine precisely the type of virus that causes it.

In a press conference, the head of the Sector said that the country is ready to respond to any type of emergency that may arise in relation to this syndrome. He indicated that health institutions have the appropriate treatments and support in sufficient quantities (medicines) and equipment for assisted breathing.

In this line, he asked the community to trust its authorities who are working hard to provide adequate medical care to patients who need it, while continuing the investigations to the samples that were taken to patients with this pathology, which will soon determine the cause or the type of microorganism that originates it.