Zoonar is photographed by Alamy.
A person who works in the Canadian province of New Brunswick has warned that a progressive neurological illness that has baffled experts for more than two years appears to be affecting a growing number of young people and causing rapid cognitive decline among some of the afflicted.
An employee with Vitalité Health Network, one of the province's two health authorities, told the Guardian that young adults with no prior health triggers are developing a catalog of troubling symptoms, including rapid weight loss.
The number of cases under investigation has not changed since the first announcement. Multiple sources say the cluster could now be as many as 150 people, with young people still requiring further assessment.
The source said that he was concerned about the cases because they seem to evolve so fast. We owe them some kind of explanation, I am worried for them.
At least nine cases have been recorded in which two people in close contact have developed symptoms, suggesting that environmental factors may be involved.
There was a man who was developing symptoms of dementia. His wife suddenly began losing sleep and was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 Her condition is worse than his.
A woman in her 30s is feeding with a tube and is drooling excessively. The nursing student in her 20s is showing symptoms of neurological decline.
In another case, a young mother lost over 60 pounds in a short period of time and began hallucinating. Alzheimer's-like signs were shown on brain scans.
The Vitalité employee, who asked not to be named because they were unauthorized to speak publicly and feared repercussions for speaking out, said they decided to come forward because of growing concerns over the speed with which young people have deteriorated.
An employee said that this is not a New Brunswick disease. The area that is raising the flag is mostly rural and has more exposure to environmental factors.
Canadian doctors are stumped by a mystery brain disorder.
In January, the province of New Brunswick is expected to announce that the cluster of cases is the result of misdiagnoses, which have wrongly grouped unrelated illnesses together.
The Mind Clinic in the city of Moncton is the clearing house for referrals from within the region and neighboring provinces. Prospective cases have often stumped doctors and resisted standardized neurological tests used to rule out certain conditions.
The clinic uses a case description guideline developed by a team of neurologists and epidemiologists to decide if a patient should be further investigated or if they have a known illness. The brain is difficult to study and so it is not possible to know who becomes part of the cluster. The cerebral tissue can be fully tested if certainty is obtained after the patient dies.
The province has worked to calm fears despite the striking details. In October, officials suggested that the eight fatal cases were the result of misdiagnosis and that the victims had died of unrelated diseases.
The experts are alarmed by the age of the patients. Neurological illnesses are rare in young people.
A scientist at the Canada's public health agency, who specializes in neurodegenerative diseases, said that the younger spectrum of patients here argues against what appears to be the preferred position of the government of New Brunswick.
The province said in October that there was no evidence of any known food, behavior or environmental exposure that could explain the illness.
Laurie Beatty, Tim Beatty's father, died in December of last year after the beginning of mental confusion around Christmas marked the beginning of his rapid decline.
The family was gobsmacked when they learned their father was one of the eight people who had died of Alzheimer's.
Beatty and his sister want their father's remains tested for neurotoxins, which some have suggested could be the culprit behind the illness.
In one study, high concentrations of BMAA were found in lobster, an industry that drives the economies of many of New Brunswick's coastal communities. The province's apparent resistance to testing for suspected environmental factors has led to speculation among families that the efforts to rule out the existence of a cluster could be motivated by political decision making.
If a group of people wanted to breed conspiracy theorists, the government has done a great job of promoting it. Are they just trying to create a narrative for the public that they hope we won't notice? I don't understand it.
The country's public health agency was considering BMAA as a possible cause, but needed the province to order the testing, according to documents obtained through freedom of information requests.
I don't know why the province wouldn't just do the science and look. They have my father's remains. Beatty said that they had given them permission to do toxicology and what needed to be done. Nothing has been looked at.
Experts warn that testing is more difficult than the public thinks.
Some medical tests can provide quick and definite results, but other types of investigation require a lot more work.
A federal scientist who was familiar with both the cluster and the testing process said that what people are talking about is a full research investigation. We don't have a way to interpret simple data that you might get when testing a person's brain tissue for a particular toxin How much are elevated levels of a neurotoxin compared to the rest of the public? When does that become a cause for concern?
The scientist said teams are ready to begin the research, but that New Brunswick has told them not to.
The province's oversight committee will write a report in January which will determine if the 48 cases are suffering from a neurological illness or the result of misdiagnosis.
A source familiar with the Mind Clinic says that the posts for a social worker, an administrator and a neuropsychologist were recently made temporary, the budget would no longer be recurrent and the clinic would be converted into a mental health facility. The health minister told reporters on December 1st that the clinic would not be closing.
We keep telling the patients that the country is behind them and that the tests will be done so that we can figure this out. The Vitalité employee told them that they would get to the bottom of the situation so that they could help them. So far, that has not happened. They need us.
