People should maintain hand hygiene, and should not eat stale food or drink water that could be contaminated, although no unexpected spike in the number of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) cases has been noticed in the state so far, officials of the state health department said after a meeting to assess the situation on Wednesday.

Two deaths have been reported recently in the state because of GBS — a neurological condition — said an official of the health department. However, he said there was no need for panic.

A teenage boy passed away from the syndrome at NRS Medical College and Hospital on Monday. On January 26, a 10-year-old boy passed away
at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences.

The GBS affects the muscles, starting with the legs, and follows a previous bout of viral or bacterial infection, said doctors.

The website of the World Health Organisation (WHO) mentions that “most cases follow an infection with a virus or bacteria. This leads the immune system to attack the body itself.”

“We met on Wednesday to assess the present situation of GBS cases in the state. We have not noticed any significant increase in the number of cases or deaths. Every year, there is a spurt of this syndrome in the winter since the prevalence of viral infections is higher during the season,” said Mihir Sarkar, a professor of paediatrics at Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, and one of the doctors present at the meeting.

An official of the health department said precautionary measures included frequent washing of hands and avoiding stale food.

“Eat freshly cooked food, avoid having uncooked vegetables and do not eat stale food or drink water whose source may raise doubts,” said the
official.

Two children diagnosed with GBS were under treatment at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences on Wednesday.

“One of the children, who is one-and-a-half years old, is critical and is under ventilation support at the paediatric ITU ward. The other, who is three years old, is admitted to the general ward,” said an official of the hospital.

The health department official said only a small percentage of people infected by the GBS required ventilation support and the state was prepared with adequate ventilators.

Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious disease specialist at Peerless Hospital, said: “As far as I have understood, there was a clustering of cases in Maharashtra.... there is still no instance of clustering in Bengal.”