Nova Scotia, New Brunswick MLAs Demand Federal Inquiry Into Spread of Mysterious Brain Disease

New Brunswick Green Party MLA Megan Mitton talks to media at the legislature in Fredericton on May 9, 2024. The Canadian Press/Hina Alam

Politicians from two Atlantic provinces are calling for a federal investigation into an unexplained increase in a brain illness that first appeared in New Brunswick nearly 10 years ago and has since spread to Nova Scotia.

N.S. Independent MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin and N.B. Green Party MLA Megan Mitton are asking the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to lead the inquiry into the spike of “atypical neurodegenerative” illnesses in both provinces.

The disease was previously thought to be only in New Brunswick, but Smith-McCrossin began hearing from her Cumberland North constituents four months ago about a variety of “unusual” neurological symptoms. Located in the northern part of the province, the riding borders New Brunswick. Amherst, the largest town in Cumberland County, N.S., is just minutes from the border.

“This is a critical issue that transcends provincial borders,” Smith-McCrossin said in a Sept. 17 joint letter with Mitton that calls on PHAC and the medical officer of health in both provinces to launch inquiries.

Nova Scotia Independent MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin. Nova Scotia Legislature

“We must ensure that both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are fully aware of the situation and working in concert to uncover the root cause of these symptoms.”

Mitton told the New Brunswick legislature in June that the problem has been spreading in the province for the past decade.

“There’s a question that I keep coming back to when it comes to the mystery brain illness, what is going on?” she said in the legislature on June 6.

“Patients and their families are desperate for answers. There are early and young onset patients, people in the same household getting sick, and it feels like New Brunswick is moving as slowly as possible, even shutting down research, making it impossible to get to the bottom of this,” Mitton said.

Three years ago, most of the cases of the mysterious brain syndrome were appearing in the northeastern corner of New Brunswick, in the Acadian Peninsula.

In April 2021, Public Health New Brunswick began to collect consent and contact information from 48 patients affected by the neurological disease to undertake an investigative survey. Those cases, identified between late 2020 and May 2021, raised questions about whether environmental toxins were behind the disease.

In a final report published in February 2022, the N.B. government concluded that there was “no evidence of a cluster of a neurological syndrome of unknown cause,” adding that “the patients didn’t have symptoms in common or have a shared common illness.”

Mitton told the N.B. legislature that emails that have been leaked or obtained through the province’s Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act indicate the government told scientists to “stand down” despite clusters of multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) popping up in the province.

Communications Across Jurisdictions

With “patients presenting with an atypical neurodegenerative illness” now on both sides of the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border, it’s time for PHAC to step in, she said in her Sept. 17 joint letter with Smith-McCrossin.

PHAC spokesperson Anna Maddison told The Epoch Times via email that the agency is currently providing assistance to Public Health New Brunswick but cannot launch its own inquiry unless additional provinces request help.

“PHAC would lead a response when there is evidence of cross-jurisdictional impacts, multiple requests for assistance from provinces and territories, and/or a need to coordinate mutual aid agreements to affected provinces/territories,” Maddison said.

“While PHAC is aware of the letter posted by MLAs Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin and Megan Mitton, the Agency has not been contacted by any provinces or territories other than New Brunswick.”

Until that time, it will be up to the provinces to lead on public health responses in their jurisdictions, she said.

Nova Scotia Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang told The Epoch Times in an email that he has “been in touch” with his counterpart in New Brunswick.

Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia chief medical officer of health. The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan

“New Brunswick is looking into this reported situation,” he said. “Our teams will continue to stay connected.”

He did not comment on whether the province has plans to request federal help.

Strang said the province’s public health teams have a “long-standing surveillance system” to detect communicable and emerging diseases. Both clinicians and laboratories report into the system, he added.

The Epoch Times contacted the office of New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.

‘We Need to Get to the Bottom of It’

The neurological disease, which first appeared in 2015, has symptoms similar to those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare and fatal degenerative brain disorder. However, New Brunswick Public Health has ruled out that it’s CJD.

Some of the reported symptoms of the unknown illness include delusions, blurred vision, hallucinations, bouts of aggression or other behavioural changes, memory problems, pain in the arms or legs, repetitive speech, imbalance, and sudden weight loss.

Smith-McCrossin, who is also a registered nurse, said the mystery condition needs to be made a priority by both levels of government.

“When you have patients that have atypical symptoms and they can’t actually find a diagnosis, that’s a concern, because we need to find out if it is a new illness, a new disease entity,” she told The Epoch Times. “We need to get to the bottom of it.”

One of Smith-McCrossin’s biggest worries is that there are more cases of the unknown illness in her riding than anyone might realize.

Most family physicians in her riding refer patients with neurological issues to specialists in Moncton, a 40-minute drive from the area.

“So if a patient in Cumberland County is going to see a neurologist in Moncton, my concern is that our Nova Scotia medical officer of health may not be fully aware of” what is happening, she said.

Medical wait times are also a factor in the province, she said, adding that one of her colleagues has a constituent who has been waiting to see a specialist for five years.

Smith-McCrossin said Nova Scotia health officials may not “have a full picture of the degree of the illness” in the province because of the long wait time to see a neurologist.

“Maybe there’s people with these symptoms that are not even being seen by neurology because they can’t get in. That’s another compounding issue,” she said. “I’m concerned that there’s people out there with symptoms that they can’t find an actual diagnosis for.”