KINGSTON, Jamaica — Since the outbreak of the Zika virus infection in Jamaica, there has been a marked increase in the number of suspected cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) in Kingston and St Andrew, the Parish Disaster Preparedness and Public Health Committee of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) was told yesterday.

The report pointed out that whereas between 2013 and 2015 there had been a total of four notifications of suspected GBS cases, ” to date in 2016 there have been 94 suspected cases notified.” Four of the cases of notification of suspected GSB were in December.

Dr Alecia Rob Allen of the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department told OBSERVER ONLINE that the GSB is seen in patients “post some viral illness”.

“It is seen in cases of persons who have had Zika,” she said.

She said that the symptoms are progressive weakness of the muscle, which may lead to paralysis. However, in the majority of cases, it resolved and did not lead to paralysis.

Meanwhile, the public health report also disclosed that in December last year, 33 persons at the New Castle base of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) were recorded with respiratory tract infection (RTI). There were also an additional 29 reports of RTI among people transferred to the JDF’s Twickenham Park Range.

Twenty-one of the soldiers were referred to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and five were admitted. One of them was placed in intensive care and was later sent to a specialist hospital in Florida.

“The suspected outbreak is now considered abated,” the report said.

In the meantime Dr Rob Allen also told the committee that Jamaica has been seeing an increase in tubercolosis cases. The cause of the increase of tubercolosis cases were associated to HIV and to urbanisation and crowding, she said.

She said that tubercolosis internationally was on the rise.

Claudienne Edwards