Symptoms of the mystery illness include memory loss and hallucinations.
A baffling outbreak of brain diseases has affected over 200 individuals in a small province, leaving doctors puzzled and searching for answers. The residents of New Brunswick, Canada, ranging from 18 to 84 years old, have been struck by a disorder resembling dementia, characterized by vivid hallucinations, speech and writing difficulties, memory lapses, and even physical paralysis.
The origins of these cases can be traced back to 2015, with numerous previously healthy individuals falling victim to this mysterious illness.
One such patient is Gabrielle Cormier, who, at the age of 20, was compelled to halt her passion for figure skating and leave university when she fell ill in 2019. Her condition deteriorated to the extent that she now relies on a wheelchair for mobility.
She told local news in 2021: “I’m trying to make a bad situation better by making my cane pretty.
“The reason we went to the rink again was because I was afraid that I was going to die and I wanted to be on the ice one last time.”
Health experts investigating these cases are exploring two possible causes: contamination of food and water by blue-green algae blooms in water sources, as well as heavy exposure to the herbicide glyphosate.
In 2021, a comprehensive investigation involving government agencies was initiated, but it abruptly ended in February 2022 when officials claimed the cases were unrelated. Medical professionals suspect that the sudden halt was motivated by the government’s desire to protect its financial interests, specifically the fishing and forest industries in the affected area.
Dr. Alier Marrero, a central figure in this medical mystery, continued to advocate for a government-led investigation. He has been treating patients in New Brunswick showing similar symptoms and recently revealed that the number of cases has exceeded 200. The affected patients were primarily concentrated in Moncton and the Acadian Peninsula, and Dr. Marrero was the first to identify the symptoms in patients from these areas.
By 2018, Dr. Marrero had encountered eight cases, which increased to 20 in the following year, 38 the year after that, and reached 48 by April 2021. However, the province ceased to keep an official count beyond that point. Nonetheless, patients sought assistance from Dr. Marrero, who had become one of the leading authorities on this enigmatic cluster of cases in Canada.
In 2021, Dr. Marrero informed government officials that he had referred two new patients, one in their 30s and another in their 50s, who were experiencing progressive Alzheimer’s disease. Extensive medical examinations, including blood tests, spinal taps, and brain scans, revealed brain atrophy and neurological dysfunction. However, the lack of consistent patterns across patients made it challenging for Dr. Marrero to establish a definitive diagnosis.
Most patients exhibited symptoms similar to dementia, while some experienced sudden speech difficulties, uncontrollable muscle spasms, mobility issues, and fatigue. For instance, Gabrielle Cormier, now 23, has endured memory loss, vision problems, and the inability to stand for extended periods, necessitating the use of a cane or wheelchair since falling ill in October 2019.
In May 2021, the investigation, which initially focused on environmental toxicity as a potential cause, abruptly came to a halt. The classification of the cases as a cluster was called into question based on early criteria that excluded patients with known diagnoses from being included.
Government investigators stated that there was no evidence of a cluster of a neurological syndrome of unknown cause, as the symptoms varied significantly among the cases and did not indicate a shared illness or unknown syndrome.
Dr. Marrero expressed concern over the fact that his patients were much younger than the average age of onset for Alzheimer’s symptoms, which typically occurs in the mid-60s. By May 2021, he had written to officials regarding the presence of more and younger patients, highlighting their hallucinations (including tactile and auditory), which were especially distressing as they persisted even when the patients were awake.
At that point, nine deaths had occurred due to the disease, attributed by neuropathologist Dr. Gerard Jansen to diagnosable neurological conditions such as brain tumors and vascular dementia. However, Dr. Marrero remained convinced that environmental toxins played a role.
He discovered a comprehensive diagnostic test designed in Quebec, which could measure his patients’ exposure to herbicides commonly used in the province.
After testing approximately 200 patients, he found that a significant majority showed exposure levels above the detection threshold for one or more of these substances, despite not being professionally involved in the agricultural industry.
The neurological condition affecting residents of New Brunswick is just one among several mysterious health issues with no apparent cause. Notably, there is Havana syndrome, an unidentified condition that first emerged among US diplomats stationed in Cuba in 2016. Additionally, researchers from the CDC have identified a surge in rare and serious brain abscesses in children in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. The number of brain abscesses in minors tripled in Nevada in the past year, potentially due to weakened immunity resulting from COVID-19 measures like lockdowns.
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