TWO children and four adults in Gwent have been diagnosed with a rare illness that leaves patients with facial weakness or paralysis.

Public Health Wales has published a report in the European Scientific journal Eurosurveillance which is devoted to surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases, mainly in Europe.

The report follows investigations by clinicians in South Wales with Public Health Wales into the causes of unusual forms of Guillian-Barre Syndrome in ten men and ‘acute flaccid paralysis’ in four children in South Wales who became ill between September and December last year.

In Gwent it has affected a child in Monmouthshire and one in Newport, two adults in Blaenau Gwent and two in Torfaen.

Two year-old Felicity Watkins, of Gaer Park Avenue in Newport, was diagnosed with the rare condition in December which causes inflammation of the nerves, which often follows illness with a number of viral or bacterial infections.

The condition occurs when the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.

The toddler has been in intensive care at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff for several weeks and is unable to move or breathe on her own.

Public Health Wales said the conditions were not contagious and that most people recover well, but the recovery is slow, usually over several weeks or months.  While the total number of cases of the syndrome is not unusual for the time of year, all the adults were diagnosed with less common variants of the condition.

Investigations by Public Health Wales have not yet discovered any links between the cases.

Dr Gwen Lowe, consultant in communicable disease control for Public Health Wales, said: “It is not unusual to see an increase in cases of Guillian-Barre Syndrome in the winter months, but it is unusual to see cases of less common forms of the condition.”

“Our investigations to date have not found a common cause, and it is possible that there may not be a single cause that links the cases.”