TEGUCIGALPA (EFE) Honduran health authorities reported Tuesday that they have registered 35 cases of the nerve disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome linked to the Zika virus.

“At this time, we have 35 cases of Guillain-Barre, of which one adult and one little boy are on artificial respirators,” Deputy Health Minister Francis Contreras, accompanied by World Health Organization representative Ana Treasure, said at a Tuesday press conference.

Guillain-Barre syndrome is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system, leading to numbness, muscle weakness and, in extreme cases, paralysis.

The link between Guillain-Barre and Zika is “rather high,” Contreras said.

Honduras has registered 4,785 cases of Zika, according to the deputy minister, who added that no cases of birth defects associated with the virus have yet been detected, although the disease has spread through more than a score of countries in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Nevertheless, Contreras said that it is possible that more Zika cases may exist in Honduras since 75 percent of those infected do not show any symptoms and do not report the illness.

Contreras said that health authorities will continue with the national campaign to eradicate mosquito breeding sites, an effort launched on Saturday with the participation of civil servants, students, churches, police, the military and representatives of the private sector, among others.

Zika – like dengue fever, the Chikungunya virus and yellow fever – is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.