In June 2022, pop star Justin Bieber posted an Instagram video to announce to his 245 million followers that he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome – a rare neurological disorder that paralyzes the facial nerve and can abruptly take away a patient’s ability to smile, raise an eyebrow, or even blink on one side of their face.
Affecting only 5 in 100,000 people in the U.S. each year, Ramsay Hunt syndrome is so rare it is often misdiagnosed as Bell’s palsy, an umbrella term for facial paralysis without an identified cause.
Ramsay Hunt originates from reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children and shingles in adults. When the virus infects the facial nerve, it can influence key muscles that control the eye (closure), mouth (smile), and nose (breathing) and cause temporary – sometimes permanent – paralysis on one side of the face.