zika virus
A lab researcher works with mosquitos at a lab of the SIU -Sede de Investigacion Universitaria-, of the Antioquia University, on January 25, 2016 in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. Local researchers of the Study and Control of Tropical Diseases Program (PECET), work to develop ways to combat the Zika virus epidemics. RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images

A new study has determine that Zika virus is responsible for a spike in cases in Guillain-Barre syndrome, confirming what CDC officials reported earlier this year. "We have evidence that Zika is the cause of Guillain-Barre syndrome in those patients and that was not known before," lead study author Dr. Arnaud Fontanet, a medical epidemiologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris said."We compared all three groups — those who had Guillain-Barre syndrome, those who were representative of the general population and those who had Zika infection without neurological complications."

The researchers found that 98 percent of the Guillain-Barre patients had antibodies to the mosquito-borne disease, suggesting they had been infected with the virus, compared with only 56 percent of the individuals in a control group that did not have the paralysis syndrome, CNN reports. “This is a compelling paper that provides a good deal of objective data to suggest an epidemiological link between recent Zika infection and increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome,” said Dr. Kenneth C. Gorson, professor of neurology at Tufts School of Medicine, “that’s huge, because it’s the first case-control study to establish a potential relationship between Zika virus infection and Guillain-Barré.”

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