What they're not telling you about Zika -Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS).

[malaise]

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/A-costly-journey-to-death-s-door-and-back_68981
<snip>
On his back in a hospital bed since July 2, 2016 in a state of near paralysis, Delano Franklyn, the former Chief Advisor to Prime Minister PJ Patterson, gives a chilling account of his near-death experience when the marauding Zika virus opened the door to a little known but deadly disease, Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS).

Franklyn, a tall robust man whose clean-shaven face and head are familiar to many Jamaicans and Comrades of the People’s National Party (PNP), was reduced overnight to a mere shadow of his former self, bed-ridden and needing help to do even basic things most people take for granted.

Doctors treating him expressed shock that he was still alive, but he admits in an interview with the Jamaica Observer that had he not been able to meet the astronomical cost of the vital drugs that would save his life, this reporter would most likely be writing his obituary.

The United States Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes GBS as an uncommon sickness of the nervous system in which a person’s own immune system damages the nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, and sometimes, paralysis.

[tanyev]

1. My boss had that. It's brutal.

It came on very suddenly, and it took a few days to figure out what it was. Even after treatment and she was no longer bedridden, she had to do a lot of physical therapy. It took at least 4 months before she was back to work full time. A year later she still had some numbness in her fingers and toes. And she was grateful they caught her case relatively early.

[malaise]

2. I heard Delano describing it from his hospital bed

last week - could not believe it. He was terrified and lucky they found out what it was early. Let Re[bTHUGs in Congress continue to play. I have long said that it will take a Public Health disaster to change their backward way of thinking.

[Saphire]

3. My 16yo daughter had this. It was brutal, and took another

few years to completely recover. Scary bad.

[Igel]

4. The CDC says GBS is

"strongly associated" with Zika.

I remember this being reported many months back. But it's a detail and many have no clue what FBS is, so the information stopped being repeated.

[tblue37]

5. And the congressional GOP won't fund Obama's Zika prevention measures, or

even return to DC to consider it when mosquito borne Zika has been proven to be infecting people in Florida.

The Dems need to tie this around the Repubs' necks. The Repubs will use it to fear monger, as they did with Ebola, so we should turn the tables and tie it around their necks first, especially since they really are to blame for refusing to deal seriously with it.

[malaise]

8. When one of their own is infected they'll change their position

See how quickly they dealt with lead in their water?

[Raissa]

6. My step mom has it.

And it took six months of incorrect diagnoses to get to it. It is extremely debilitating. At one point her facial paralysis resulted in needing to have her eyes taped shut at night so that she could close them. Her vision has also become so poor that she cannot drive. Thankfully she has regained some function and do normal self-care activities on her own again.

She lives in a small town in Indiana and the medical teams there just aren't what you'd like to see. It took a referral to Indianapolis to get the answers, and now it is very likely that damage will be lasting.

[malaise]

7. I know Delano well

I was frightened when I saw the photo in the article. He was still in hospital a few days ago and it will take years for him to recover.