Pop star Justin Bieber has announced that his face is partially paralyzed by a viral condition called Ramsay Hunt syndrome, caused by the same virus, varicella-zoster, which causes chickenpox and shingles.
He told fans in a video posted to YouTube on Friday that the virus attacked “the nerve in my ear, the facial nerves and caused paralysis in my face. Notice that this eye is not blinking. I can’t smile on this side of my face. This nostril cannot move.”
Ramsay Hunt syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that occurs when the varicella-zoster virus infects a nerve in the head near the inner ear. After having chickenpox as a child or shingles as an adult, the virus can lie dormant in the body. It is not yet known why the virus reactivates and produces Ramsay Hunt symptoms.
Symptoms can include a painful rash inside the ear canal and outside the ear, sometimes attacking the tongue and roof of the mouth, according to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Due to the involvement of the inner ear, people with the condition may also experience vertigo (feeling dizzy or things spinning around them) or tinnitus, a weird sound in the ear.
Ramsay Hunt syndrome can also cause hearing loss on the affected side of the face. Like Bieber, it can also cause weakness, facial drooping, or paralysis on the side of the face that has been attacked by the virus.
This weakness can cause difficulty closing one eye, making facial expressions, and eating, as food can fall from the side of the weakened mouth.
Treatment consists of steroids such as prednisone to reduce inflammation and pain relievers. Sometimes antiviral drugs that help in the herpes family, such as acyclovir or valacyclovir, may be prescribed.
Bierber assured fans that he “will get better” and that he was doing “facial exercises to get my face back to normal.”
“It’s going to get back to normal — it’s just time and we don’t know how long, but it’s going to be okay,” he said in the video. “Obviously my body is telling me I have to slow down. I hope you guys understand and I will use this time to rest and relax and get back to 100%.”
According to Mount Sinai, full recovery is not certain. Some recover in a few months, however. The earlier it is identified, the better the chance of recovery.
Source: CNN Brasil
