Discussion
Guillain– Barré Syndrome is a rare but serious health disorder, triggered by an infection or immune stimulus, in which a person’s own immune system damages his/her peripheral nerve cells as a result of molecular mimicry, causing muscle weakness, sometimes paralysis, and infrequently death10,11. Several diagnostic criteria for Guillain Barré Syndrome have been proposed, including the recent one set by the Brighton Collaboration12.
Vaccine-associated Guillain–Barre syndrome is defined as those with the onset of GBS symptoms within the six-week period after receiving the vaccine, as reported by Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) 13.
Yong Chen et al suggest that previous case reports of Gg shortly after administration of several other vaccines probably represent coincidental temporal associations rather than real causal associations14.
COVID-19 infection creates an immunomediate systemic response characterized by cytokine storm15. It is still the subject of research if GBS linked to COVID- 19 is due to antibody production against specific gangliosides as seen in some forms of GBS or T-cell- mediated actions or straight neuroinvasive events16,17.
Filosto et al, carried out a study in two Italian regions with the highest number of COVID-19-positive patients. It, showed a considerably higher GBS incidence in March and April 2020 than in the same months of 2019 with a 2.6-fold increase. The majority of GBS cases (88%) were COVID-19 positive with an estimated incidence of 47.86/100 000 COVID-19-positive cases and of 236/100000 in the hospitalized COVID-19-positive population18.
The real connection between the vaccination for COVID-19 and the development of GBS is still controversial , although GBS cases have been reported following a wide range of vaccines such as meningococcal vaccine, poliovirus vaccine, flu vaccine and rabies vaccine19.