A team of British researchers has found a significant number of victims of Guillain-Barre syndrome or Miller Fisher syndrome were recently infected with a bacterium often responsible for gastrointestinal problems.
The findings, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, do not mean infection from the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni always leads to the limb weakness and occasional paralysis caused by the syndromes. But it does establish a link.Jeremy Rees of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, and research colleagues hunted for the bacteria in 103 people suffering from either syndrome and found evidence of the bacterial infection in 26 percent. Those patients who died or became severely disabled were more likely to have suffered a Campylobacter jejuni infection, the researchers found.
Two percent of healthy people studied by the team were found to have been infected by the bacterium without suffering any long-lasting effects.
Campylobacter jejuni is a common cause of diarrhea and can be found in poultry, raw milk or contaminated water. "It must now be regarded as the chief precipitant of Guillain-Barre syndrome," said Dr. Charles F. Bolton of the University of Western Ontario, in an editorial in the Journal.