New Brunswick launches webpage dedicated to tracking mystery neurological disease

The Government of New Brunswick has launched a webpagededicated to providing updates on a mysterious neurological disease that's so far infected 47 people and killed six.

The webpage, which is part of the gnb.ca website, was lunched Tuesday and provides an overview of the province's investigation into the cause of the disease, the symptoms it causes and the cases that have been detected so far.

"Since early 2020, physicians in New Brunswick have been identifying a number of individuals with an unusual combination of neurological symptoms," says the site.

"Despite extensive medical investigation, a diagnosis for these individuals has not yet been determined."

The disease cluster was first reported on in March, when Radio-Canada obtained a memo from Public Health to medical professionals.

The March 5 memonoted that 43 cases of the disease had been identified so far,and that five people had died. Four new cases and one more death have since been recorded.

Tests done on the patients have so far ruled outCreutzfeldt-Jakobdisease and other prion diseases, and scientists are looking into the possibility that this is an entirely new disease,possibly caused by an environmental toxin.

The webpageshows that the illness onset for the disease is from 2013 to 2020. In a note, however, the province says symptoms started in 2018, 2019 or 2020 for most cases, and only one case identifiedin 2020 was found to experience symptoms in 2013.

The death toll of six is also appended with a note saying, "In some cases, additional information is needed to determine if the cause of death was a result of this [neurological syndrome of unknown cause]."

The province says 51 per cent of cases are in women, while 49 per cent are in men, and range in age from 18 to 85.

"At the time of referral by their health-care provider, most of the individuals under investigation were living in the southeastern and northeastern regions of New Brunswick, around the Acadian Peninsula and Moncton areas," says the webpage.

"However, so far our investigation has not found any evidence suggesting that the residents of these regions are more at risk than those living elsewhere in the province."

Symptoms of the disease include:

• Memory problems.
• Muscle spasms.
• Balance issues, difficulty walking or falls.
• Blurred vision or visual hallucinations.
• Unexplained, significant weight loss.
• Behaviour changes.
• Pain in the upper or lower limbs.

The webpage says Public Health is working with several provincial and federal agencies to investigate the disease cluster, including the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries and the Public Health Agency of Canada.