Guillain-Barre syndrome occurring after rabies vaccination

Abstract

A variety of events are associated with the onset of Guillain-Barre syndrome, including vaccinations and vaccines. These are the swine influenza vaccine, oral poliovirus vaccine and rabies vaccine. Rabies is a uniformly fatal disease. It is preventable if World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for post exposure treatment (PET) are followed. These include local treatment of wound, passive immunization with rabies immunoglobulins and administration of a efficacious vaccine. Cell culture vaccines are highly immunogenic with fewer side effects, but are costly. For that reason neurotissue vaccines are still widely used in Pakistan, although they are less immunogenic with higher incidence of neuroparalytic complications. We report a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome secondary to sheep brain anti-rabies vaccine in a young boy, who presented with lower limb weakness with total recovery after treatment.