Why Are People In New Brunswick Coming Down With A Mystery Illness

Just over the border, our Canadian neighbors are coming down with a neurological brain condition that is stumping medical professionals.

So far the mysterious brain disorder has killed 6 people in New Brunswick and has infected 48 others, mostly in the eastern portion of the province over the past few years.  People that have come down with it are experiencing symptoms like muscle spasms to start out with, before then quickly developing Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, insomnia, muscle atrophy and even hallucinations that involve "nightmarish visions of the dead", according to the New York Times.

While medical professionals scramble to figure out what's going on, residents of New Brunswick are coming up with their own theories.  Could it be genetic?  Is there something in the water?  Is there something within the meat from the deer that they shot or the fish that they caught?

For the past year doctors in New Brunswick have been focused on COVID-19 just like everywhere else, now they're starting to focus once again on the mysterious brain syndrome that so far is affecting very few.  Doctors have suggested that the ramifications of the condition may be the byproduct of a prior condition within those that become affected by it.

So far, 51% of the cases have been women and 49% have been men.  The ages of those affected range from 18 to 85.  New Brunswick has about 770,000 residents in it.

Dr. Neil Cashman who is a neurologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who is investigating the condition told the New York Times, "From the standpoint of a mystery, there is usually something horrible like a murder — in this case it is rapidly progressive dementia, and psychiatric manifestations, losing everything at once that is controlled by the brain and the spinal cord. It is terrifying.”

Let's hope that they figure this one out real soon.