Another health authority has failed to find any connection between an undiagnosed neurological illness that has impacted more than 200 New Brunswickers. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) says they found no evidence of any unusual pattern of mysterious brain injury based on population level surveillance, information from patients and caregivers, engagement with the neurological that reported the illness, and available data. “Although some patients, caregivers, and the reporting neurologist continued to express concerns about an unusual illness, the available data did not show evidence of a shared health event or unusual pattern of illness,” reads a summary of the report on the Government of New Brunswick’s website. CTV Atlantic has reached out to both Health Minister John Dornan and New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Yves Léger for comment on the findings and is awaiting a response. CTV Atlantic has also asked the Health Department why no news release or media availability was held to discuss the findings that have been public since Oct. 29. Despite the fact the report details a range of diagnoses among the more than 200 patients identified by Moncton-based neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero, who first notified the province of New Brunswick’s “mysterious neurological illness” in late 2020 after an initial group of 48 patients was discovered, the report does recognize that “important uncertainties remain.” “The presence of a range of diagnoses for some patients means that there is no single common health event affecting the entire group of patients,” the PHAC’s 76-page report reads in part. “However, the absence of interpretation of clinical findings for most patients leaves uncertainty about whether such an event could exist for a subgroup of patients.” PHAC has made the following recommendations to the Office of New Brunswick Chief Medical Officer of Heath (OCMOH) along with the Regional Health Authorities (RHA) as appropriate which are as followed: “Our primary concern has been and continues to be for the affected patients,” the online report summary reads. “Moving forward, we will work with our partners in the health care system to ensure patients are able to access the care and information they need.” New Brunswick Chief Medical Officer of Health first began investigating the mysterious illness in 2021. The investigation found no evidence of a common illness between the 48 patients studied at that time. The symptoms those patients were dealing with included: In 2023, one of the referring neurologists raised new concerns about the unknown illness as it relates to possible exposures from a group of patients to certain metals and herbicides. One report was conduced over the course of three years and was released in January of this year. That report found no evidence of widespread environment exposure contributing to an illness, and that no new or unknown brain diseases were identified. CTV has reached out to the PHAC for additional comment and is awaiting a response. With files from CTV National News’ Laura Brown. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
