Oct. 19, 2023 – A large new study links COVID-19 with an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Vaccination against COVID appeared to reduce the risk of GBS, which is a rare illness that can leave people paralyzed.
The findings were published Wednesday by the American Academy of Neurology in its journal Neurology.
Researchers analyzed health data from January 2021 to July 2022 for more than 3 million people in Israel ages 16 years and older not diagnosed with GBS before. They found that people with a recent COVID infection were six times more likely to have GBS, compared to people without a recent infection. But the disease remains very rare. Of the 3 million people in the study, 76 got GBS.
The increased risk of GBS was measured within the 6 weeks after a person had COVID. People who had recently received an mRNA-based COVID vaccine were 50% less likely to get GBS, compared to people who had not been recently vaccinated.
“These findings further highlight the benefits of ongoing vaccination programs with mRNA-based vaccines,” study author Anat Arbel, MD, of Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, said in a news release. “The results have important clinical and public health implications.”
The authors noted that not all people in the study had COVID test data on file. That means some people who were considered uninfected may have had SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but they had no symptoms of COVID or only mild symptoms and did not take a test.
The cause of GBS is unknown, and there is no cure. Symptoms begin with weakness in the hands and feet, and can progress to paralysis. GBS can be life-threatening, although most people recover with no further problems. The disease has been linked to having a prior gut or respiratory infection.