After some cases of the rare neurological syndrome of Guillain-Barrè which occurred in the USA following the anti-Covid immunization with the single-dose vaccine J&J, and the consequent decision of the US drug agency Fda to include this pathology in the information sheet of the vaccine, the issue also ends up under the lens of the European Medicines Agency Ema. The FDA has in fact announced a new warning for the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine, explaining that it can carry the risk of this rare neurological disease. The risk is three to five times higher among those vaccinated with J&J than the general population in the US. About 100 cases have been identified so far, mostly among men, many aged 50 and over.
Most of the patients recovered, but one death was also recorded. The FDA concluded that the vaccine‘s benefits in preventing death or severe forms of Covid still strongly outweigh this risk but decided to include the warning in the information sheets. Even the EMA today announced that it “is analyzing the data provided” by Johnson & Johnson “on cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome reported following vaccination” with the immunizer, and has asked J&J to provide “further detailed data”. Currently, databases indicate that symptoms of the syndrome develop within about three weeks of vaccination. This pathology, explains to ANSA Ugo Nocentini, Director of the Neurorehabilitation Unit at the Irccs Santa Lucia Foundation and Professor of Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, “is defined acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. In practice, due to of an autoimmune process, antibodies attack myelin, which is the lining of the nerve fibers of the peripheral nervous system.
The consequences are twofold and can affect first of all the level of movement causing weakness of the muscular structures up to, in the most serious cases, a paralysis of the upper and lower limbs and also of the respiratory muscles and cranial nerves “. The second consequence, he clarifies. , “is that there can be an alteration of the nerve fibers related to touch and the perception of cold and heat, up to the complete loss of sensitivity.” use of appropriate care. In 20% of cases, however, there is also the absolute need for neurorehabilitative treatments “. As for the causes of the disease,” it is hypothesized that the triggering cause may be contact with various types of viruses. The SarscoV2 virus also seems to be involved and to date, in the world, there are several hundred cases of this syndrome in patients positive for the new coronavirus “. Compared to the link with the J&J vaccine,” this immunizer – Nocentini says – uses a viral vector inactivated, but its constituents still come into contact with the organism and this could be the mechanism that leads to the autoimmune reaction. On the contrary, the anti-Covid vaccines with messenger mRna introduce only the RNA of the virus, and not its components, and this would avoid this complication “. However, concludes the expert,” these are only hypotheses, which require further studies of in-depth study “.