Influenza, Campylobacter and Mycoplasma infections, and hospital admissions for Guillain-Barré syndrome, England.
Tam, Clarence C;
O'Brien, Sarah J;
Rodrigues, Laura C;
(2006)
Influenza, Campylobacter and Mycoplasma infections, and hospital admissions for Guillain-Barré syndrome, England.
Emerging infectious diseases, 12 (12).
pp. 1880-1887.
ISSN 1080-6040
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1212.051032
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Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is the most common cause of acute flaccid paralysis in polio-free regions. Considerable evidence links Campylobacter infection with GBS, but evidence that implicates other pathogens as triggers remains scarce. We conducted a time-series analysis to investigate short-term correlations between weekly laboratory-confirmed reports of putative triggering pathogens and weekly hospitalizations for GBS in England from 1993 through 2002. We found a positive association between the numbers of reports of laboratory-confirmed influenza A in any given week and GBS hospitalizations in the same week. Different pathogens may trigger GBS in persons of different ages; among those <35 years, numbers of weekly GBS hospitalizations were associated with weekly Campylobacter and Mycoplasma pneumoniae reports, whereas among those >35 years, positive associations were with influenza. Further studies should estimate the relative contribution of different pathogens to GBS incidence, overall and by age group, and determine whether influenza is a real trigger for GBS or a marker for influenza vaccination.