New Brunswick to Conduct Investigation Into Mystery Brain Illness: Premier

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt answers media questions in Fredericton on Nov. 12, 2024. The Canadian Press/Stephen MacGillivray

New Brunswick will conduct an investigation into a neurodegenerative illness impacting dozens of individuals for which no cause has been determined, Premier Susan Holt says. The mystery illness has so far been seen in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The illness was first reported to the New Brunswick provincial health authority in 2020, according to a New Brunswick government website. Approximately 48 cases were reported to the Canadian Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance System (CJDSS) by April 2021. CJDSS is an arm of the Public Health Agency of Canada that does national surveillance for human prion disease. Prion diseases are rare, fatal, degenerative brain disorders.

The illness became part of a Public Health New Brunswick (PHNB) investigation in 2021. PHNB determined that the patients were not suffering from a new illness, but rather their symptoms fit other diagnoses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, mixed dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer, among others.

The newly elected Holt has said she plans to launch a new investigation in the coming months, saying a more fulsome and “transparent” scientific examination is needed.

“There’s certainly urgency because people are scared and for good reason, right? We can barely diagnose this disease, there isn’t treatment for it, and people don’t know what’s causing it, so they don’t know how to change their own behaviours to avoid it,” she said in an interview with CBC News.

In Holt’s mandate letter to her health minister, she says the investigation is a priority for her government. The move also fulfills a campaign promise by Holt. An Aug. 30 statement from her campaign said those suffering from the illness had been “ignored” by the previous government.

“New Brunswickers deserve answers. We need to know what’s making us sick,” she said. “Our team has consulted with experts and we have a plan for public health to leverage the federal assistance and launch an open and transparent scientific investigation into this mystery illness.”

Holt also said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has offered $5 million to support the investigation.

Investigation

The PHNB investigation started in February 2021. An oversight committee was created in June 2021 to review clinical information of those said to have the illness. The committee reported its findings to the government in February 2022. The government considered the investigation closed with no mysterious illness identified.

PHNB stressed in its final report that 46 of the 48 cases were referred by a single neurologist. It recommended that any physician dealing with a case of unknown illness seek a second opinion.

“Not only is this best medical practice, but it addresses the issue of potential physician bias,” the report said. “This could have alleviated a lot of stress and uncertainty faced by those included in the cluster.”

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) also said it was ready to provide support for the investigation, although the agency said it wouldn’t be directly involved.

“CIHR would not have a role in the investigation and would only provide research support and advice,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.