Mysterious 'brain disease' affecting the young leaves many questions unanswered

A mysterious and, at times, fatal brain condition has been creeping its way insidiously across a Canadian province, claiming an unusually high number of young victims, according to local health experts.

Hallucinations, muscle spasms, memory problems and unexplained weight loss are among the symptoms reported by sufferers of the unidentified illness, which first came to the public’s attention in 2021 when 48 cases were recorded in New Brunswick.

Since then, the number has continued to grow, with some doctors and local residents suggesting it may exceed 200, with nine deaths already attributed to the enigmatic disease, theNew York Post reports.

But it is the affliction of young people which is perhaps most baffling, given that this age group doesn’t normally present dementia-like symptoms or similar neurological problems.

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“I am particularly concerned about the increase in numbers of young-onset and early-onset neurological syndrome,” neurologist Dr Alier Marrero wrote in a letter to New Brunswick’s chief medical officer and the chief federal public health officer earlier this year.

“Over the past year, I have been following 147 cases, between the ages of 17 and 80 years old. Out of those, 57 are early-onset cases and 41 are young-onset cases,” Marrero wrote, according to the Guardian, which obtained a copy of the letter.

And yet, despite all the unanswered questions surrounding the disease a government investigation into the causes of the condition was drawn to an abrupt close.

Wrapping up its report in February 2022, the Public Health New Brunswick agency announced that there was no mystery illness, and an oversight committee concluded that people in the “cluster” of reported cases had probably just been misdiagnosed.

It suggested they were simply suffering from known illnesses such as cancer or dementia.

Neurologist Alier Marrero was referred dozens of cases of the mystery condition by baffled doctorsThe Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation

However, Marrero is among the experts calling for further investigations, insisting that patients have been neglected by authorities in the Canadian province.

In his January letter to health chiefs, Marrero said that some of his patients were in “advanced stages of clinical deterioration and near end of life” as he pleaded for action.

Warning of “troubling” new developments, he said recent lab tests on a number of patients showed “clear signs of exposure” to the herbicide glyphosate, which is widely used by forestry companies in the region, according to The Guardian.

Marrero expressed concern that the presence of glyphosate and other compounds could be linked to toxins in the province, which are known for their harmful effects on the brain.

“Moreover, I underline again that many of our patients are young. This is concerning as it is quite rare for young patients to present with such symptomatology,” he pointed out in his letter.

A number of Marrero’s patients provided The Guardian with their test results, which showed detectable levels of glyphosate.

As the paper notes, it’s not clear whether the elevated levels of glyphosate do, indeed, have any link to the neurodegenerative symptoms suffered by the patients, and more testing would be needed to determine how high these levels are compared with the rest of the community.

However, in his letter, Marrero said he was worried that the presence of glyphosate could be connected to a number of blue-green algae blooms found in bodies of water throughout the region.

Glyphosate contains phosphorous that can stimulate blooms of blue-green algae, a type of cyanobacteria that can cause sickness in people and kill animals, the New York Post notes.

Blue-green algae can be lethal to animalsiStock

Patient advocates have joined Marrero in putting pressure on the local government to reopen its investigation into the mystery illness and its causes, with many speculating that pressure from industry or other groups might have fuelled the decision to close the case.

“For almost a year, we were led to believe that a thorough and unbiased public health investigation was in progress. We are here to tell you that that did not happen,” Stacie Cormier, one of the advocates, whose stepdaughter is suffering from neurological decline, told the Toronto Star.

“Provincial and federal health officials are misrepresenting our patient files and information. And they’re using this false information as a reason to abandon a public health inquiry.”

Cormier’s stepdaughter, Gabrielle Cormier, had to drop out of university and give up her passion for figure skating at 20 when she became ill with memory loss, vision problems, and an inability to stand for more than a few minutes.

She is now unable to walk unassisted.

Gabrielle Cormier went from being a passionate figure skater to requiring a cane or wheelchair to get around@ladygaby69/TikTok

She told local news outlet CTV News that she made her final visit to an ice rink back in 2021, because: “I was afraid that I was going to die and I wanted to be on the ice one last time.”

New Brunswick health authorities have so far declined to reopen their investigation into the illness or conduct any new environmental tests.

Indy100 has contacted Public Health New Brunswick for comment.

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