# 5157
Two days ago in Guillain-Barre Syndrome in Mexico, I wrote about a mysterious outbreak of acute flaccid paralysis in Mexico that at first was attributed to GBS, or Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Since that time we’ve seen numerous news stories in the Mexican media, often with conflicting information. FluTrackers has a thread with more than 50 posts on this outbreak, which has numerous translated news articles.
Early suggestions that this might in some way be connected to flu vaccinations (a common kneejerk reaction whenever GBS appears), are being dismissed by the Health Secretariat who announced that `of the 35 cases of acute flaccid paralysis, only two received the vaccine against seasonal influenza’.
Tonka, senior moderator on FluTrackers, posted a translation from an article from excelsior.com this morning.
SSA denies link with vaccine and H1N1 outbreak
The deputy director of epidemiology says there is no evidence that flaccid paralysis is caused by the vaccine and Guillain-Barré syndrome
Georgina Olson
• Strange outbreak sparks alert at Veracruz, and there are two dead• Suman 33 patients with syndrome 'Guillain-Barre'
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 18 .- Of the 42 cases of acute flaccid paralysis have been presented in Veracruz and Nayarit none have been caused by the application of the vaccine against influenza A H1N1 or which is used to attack the influenza Seasonal also still have no evidence to prove that the disease is Guillain-Barré syndrome, said in an interview with Excelsior Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, deputy general director of epidemiology at the Health Secretariat (SSA)."No, there is no evidence linking the vaccine against influenza A virus H1N1 or other influenza season, with the occurrence of these cases of acute flaccid paralysis," the official said.
While all of this tells us what this outbreak isn’t, right now no one seems to know what this outbreak is.
According to media reports, of the (and the numbers here seem to vary a bit) 3 dozen or so cases reported so far, only 10 remain hospitalized.
GBS-like symptoms (acute flaccid paralysis) can be caused by a variety of factors, including as sequelae from viral and bacterial infections, and even from environmental toxins.
According to another report on El Mundo, also posted by Tonka, health authorities are taking water, food, and environmental samples from areas where these cases have been reported.
Staff of the Department of Health investigates the factors that can trigger paralysis, to make them known to the public and can be prevented.
Friday, December 17, 2010 Juliet H. Zambrano
All of these tests will likely take weeks.
The good news is that the number of cases does not seem to be expanding very rapidly, and that most of these cases are resolving fairly quickly.
For now, however, the cause of this outbreak remains unknown.
I’ll update this story from time to time, but you can follow this thread on Flutrackers to keep up with the latest news reports.
