According to reports, forty-eight people from the same province in Canada were admitted to hospitals with a mysterious case of brain syndrome. The report comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, causing panic in the country [1]. The hospitalised people have reported symptoms like insomnia, limb dysfunction and even hallucinations.
As per the New York Times report, people with this mysterious disease are all from the Canadian province of New Brunswick, located on the Atlantic coast. The syndrome/disease was first observed in 2015 (some reports say 2013) when Dr Alier Marrero saw a patient who showed a combination of symptoms including depression, rapidly progressive dementia and muscle pains [2].
As of 29 April 2021, 48 cases, along with six deaths, have been reported, though the GNB noted that for the deaths, "in some cases, additional information is needed to determine if the cause of death as a result" of this disease [3].
When the news of the mysterious illness began making rounds, there were several explanations as to why and how this was happening. And conspiracy theories, too, were a part of it.
The mysterious brain syndrome has baffled Canada's medical agencies and caught the attention of some of the world's top neurologists, and fanned fears among New Brunswick residents.
Below are the available data on this mysterious brain syndrome:
As per the latest updates, the following are what we know about the symptoms of the condition:
Canadian health experts have mentioned that the disease affects men and women equally and all age group.
When the reports in 2015 of the health issues began to surface, the patients ranged from 18-year-olds to 84-year-olds, thereby showing that the health issue is not targeted to a specific age group.
As the doctors were unable to diagnose any health problem in the hospitalised patients, one of the experts who had patients with the case gave the disease a prosaic working name: Neurological Syndrome of Unknown Aetiology in New Brunswick. Also termed as NBNSUC, the first case displayed symptoms as early as 2013 [9].
The disease is being investigated in New Brunswick by Moncton neurologist Dr Alier Marrero of Dr Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre and also by Michael Coulhart.
Cyanobacteria, a bacteria blamed in previous years for killing dogs that consumed it, will be investigated as a potential cause of a mystery neurological brain syndrome [10]. Also known as blue-green algae, the bacteria are a commonly found toxin in the area, and the researchers have begun looking in to see whether there is any link between the two.
"So those are two environmental toxins that can present with these sorts of syndromes, and they are on the list to be studied and to determine if there has been exposure to these two toxins in New Brunswick," said Dr Neil Cashman, a professor in the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine, who's helping investigate the illness [11].
Reports said that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the health organisations in Canada were overwhelmed and failed to pay any attention to the rising number of this mysterious brain syndrome [12].
Currently, more studies are being carried out by experts all over the globe to assess the seriousness and, more importantly, the cause of this mysterious brain syndrome. Experts had also said that what can seem like a new illness sometimes turns out to be a known disease that has not been diagnosed.