Nahed Refaat v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barre syndrome / chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (2025)

On February 14, 2024, Nahed Refaat filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccine administered on February 14, 2022 caused Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). The petition initially proceeded as a Table GBS claim.

The medical record contained competing diagnostic signals. Ms.

Refaat had a history of positive ANA testing and Sjogren's syndrome. In her declaration she said she had body aches a few days after the flu shot and, seven to ten days after vaccination, developed severe body pain, numbness, weakness, fatigue, and tingling in her feet that made walking and driving difficult.

On March 7, 2022, she reported body aches beginning a day or two after the vaccination and numbness in her lower extremities. She went to the emergency room the same day with body aches and tingling in her hands, feet, knees, and legs.

A neurologist considered her symptoms suggestive of GBS; a hematology-oncology consultation also noted leukopenia, Sjogren's syndrome, and low-normal vitamin B12. She received three doses of IVIG and was discharged.

Follow-up records continued to describe neuropathic symptoms, but later testing and neurology records raised chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). A May 2022 EMG showed demyelinating polyneuropathy with acute and chronic motor axon loss in both lower extremities, which the neurologist considered consistent with CIDP.

By October 2022, records still referenced GBS but also stated that she remained symptomatic and had CIDP. Respondent argued that CIDP was a more likely alternative diagnosis and that a one-to-two-day onset would not satisfy the Table GBS window.

Chief Special Master Brian H. Corcoran dismissed only the Table GBS claim on November 4, 2025, because CIDP is an exclusionary diagnosis under the GBS Table criteria.

He did not decide the off-Table causation claim. Ms.

Refaat elected to proceed on a causation-in-fact theory, and the case was transferred out of the Special Processing Unit for expert development.