On the line: Doctors decode what went wrong in Marion Bartoli case

Former French tennis player Marion Bartoli’s drastic weight loss over the past few months — after she retired from competitive tennis in August 2013 — has so far been met with a mix of worry and shaming, and she has even been subject to abuse online.

However, Marion recently went on air and claimed that it was due to a virus she had contracted while on a recent hectic tour that included a trip to New York and India. Saying that it’s a “constant fear”, the 2013 Wimbledon winner said in a televised interview on This Morning that the virus was unidentifiable by doctors, and that her symptoms didn’t allow her to lead a normal life.

Marion explained, “I can’t even wash myself with tap water... I can’t be on my phone for more than five minutes as my heart starts to pump... Every time I do something, I’m scared to see the reaction to my body, it’s a constant fear,” adding that she’s reduced to eating just organic salad leaves with skinless cucumbers.
And while the reason for her sudden weightloss may have been explained, the nature of the virus that she reportedly contracted in our country has doctors baffled as to what it could be.

“Marion Bartoli has a problem which has not been diagnosed,” Dr Suneetha Narreddy, a consultant for infectious diseases at Apollo Hospitals says, adding, “The claim is that she has an unidentified virus which she picked up in India.”

 How do we know that she has a virus if one has not been identified. If the virus has not been identified how do we know it’s origin? Her symptoms are not classic for a viral infection and can be any number of problems.”

Those problems could even be genetic in nature, explains Dr Sasikiran, Senior General Physican at Yashoda Hospitals, which is why there have been no reported cases here in India.

“There are a few theoretical possibilities — It could be like HIV or tuberculosis or even malabsorption syndrome. There’s also a set of diseases called prion diseases, which is very rare and is sometimes genetically inherited, but it can also occur because of partially cooked meat. These can lead to some sort of wasting syndromes and there’s no proper treatment for it because they’re usually detected during the post mortem,” he says.

The Frenchwoman’s condition could also be a viral illness, something that should have been easily diagnosed by now. “There is no such virus with this characteristic presentation known to us. There are a few viruses which are associated with weight loss but they can be easily diagnosed,” says Apollo’s Hospitals’ Dr Hari Kishan Boorugu a consultant physician, but adds, “The cause of this condition could be due to a condition other than an infection as well!”