Courtesy GNB/YouTube
Any behaviours, foods or environmental exposures have been ruled out as factors in cases of New Brunswick’s mystery brain illness which was outlined in an epidemiological report released by the province.
The 48 cases have only been found in the northeast and southeast parts of New Brunswick.
Health minister Dorothy Shephard expressed frustration at communication gaps which allowed the situation to escalate often without oversight since Public Health learned about the illness last year.
During an update streamed live on YouTube Wednesday, Shephard says input from outside experts has always been welcomed and no one has ever been muzzled to her knowledge.
“If this had a national impact or if cases were in other provinces, this would then become the venue of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) but that wasn’t the case. All of the cases were in New Brunswick. Therefore it was Public Health New Brunswick’s responsibility to take the lead.”
Thirty-four of the 48 patients in the cluster have taken part in enhanced interviews while nine patients declined and five could not be contacted.
Other findings include:
- a total of 48 patients were identified to have some clinical signs and symptoms that were similar to those associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) yet presented atypical characteristics. To date, these patients all tested negative for known forms of human prion diseases, which are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders.
- forty-six of the 48 identified patients in the cluster were referred by a single neurologist and the two other cases were referred by two separate neurologists.
- all of the patients who participated in the enhanced surveillance interviews were referred to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance System (CJDSS) by the same neurologist.
- the potential neurological syndrome appears to be limited to New Brunswick, with no similar cases being referred from other provinces or territories.
Shephard was also asked about recent published reports spotlighting the illness and she noted that is beyond her control.
“What I can do is commit that when our information is validated, it will be conveyed to families, to patients and then to the public,” she added.
Meantime, University of Ottawa neuropathologist Dr. Gerard Jansen studied the autopsies of eight patients and determined they actually died of known diseases.
His findings were published on the Canadian Association of Neuropathologists website.
“While we have ruled out food and other common exposures, we are still working to determine what took place,” said Shephard.
“The role of the oversight committee is to provide a professional second opinion to ensure due diligence and rule out other plausible diagnoses, and they will continue to review all case files, medical charts and records and will re-interview and re-evaluate patients if needed.”
The oversight committee, comprised of six neurologists, is expected to complete its clinical review by early 2022.
