New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health says a new report has found no evidence of a mysterious brain disease that has allegedly been impacting about 400 residents, mostly in the Acadian Peninsula and Moncton areas.
Dr. Yves Léger released his final report Friday and said despite “many significant limitations” in terms of data and testing results, they were able to conclude that the “investigation does not find evidence of a widespread issue among this patient group.”
“We are seeing certainly an accumulating body of, I think, good evidence that is suggesting that these patients may not actually have an undiagnosed condition but may actually have conditions that can be diagnosed,” he said.
“At the end of the day, obviously these are patients that are suffering, that are ill. And to do so without having a diagnosis and a proper treatment and care plan is very concerning.”
Under the previous Progressive Conservative government, the province began investigating 48 patients with neurological symptoms in 2021.
Patients have told Global News they have been dealing with frequent seizures, confusion, spasms and tremors.
But the Blaine Higgs government said in 2022 that it found no evidence of a common illness and ended the investigation.
The current Liberal government promised during its 2024 election campaign it would reopen the investigation. Léger announced last March that his office would take on reviewing 222 files, along with the Public Health Agency of Canada.
‘Limitations’ in data
The number of patients reporting symptoms has since grown to around 400, most of whom were patients of the same physician, noted Léger.
“Our main objective in this investigation was to further understand the concerns brought forward by the physician about certain environmental substances,” he said, adding they were looking into certain herbicides and metals.
“We wanted to know if the results were reliable or not, if they were higher than what we’d expect to find, and if they were in fact higher, if we could find evidence that suggested that they might be contributing to their neurological illness.”
Get weekly health news
Dr. Alier Marrero, the physician who first brought forward the concerns, has spoken out about the symptoms he’s found. He told Global News last year he had evaluated hundreds of patients and found a “significant amount of unequivocal, sometimes critical environmental exposure evidence, as well as rare autoimmune markers in many of them.”
During a news conference, Léger repeatedly said his team faced “limitations” while reviewing those files. He said there was a “level of uncertainty” in the original test results.
“One of the more significant issues (was) the fact that very few patients who actually had elevated results got repeat testing and got those elevated results confirmed,” he said.
“Most that got a repeat test either had normal results, for the vast majority of them, if not all, in the case of the pesticide.”
He went on to say, “very few of these elevations were confirmed. It’s really difficult for us to even assume that those are accurate.”
Léger said when looking at the herbicides tested, the report found around 95 per cent of the results were “within the normal or expected range when compared to the lab’s reference ranges” and were similar to what they “would expect to see if we tested a group of Atlantic Canadians.”
He said, however, findings from the metals tested did show some patients had elevated results.
“But the vast majority of tests done, around 93 per cent, were within the normal or expected levels. When we compared with the reference ranges, when we compared levels of this patient group to levels we would expect to see if we tested a sample of Canadians, most were the same or lower, with a few elevations noted for a few metals,” he said.
The report also reviewed nine autopsy reports of patients who had died.
“Autopsies revealed known conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease, CGD and others,” he said. “The reports did not indicate any unusual findings.”
Léger said he has reached out to Marrero to discuss the final report’s findings.
Global News has reached out to Marrero for comment.
Advocate alleges report attempts to discredit
Stacie Quigley Cormier, who became an advocate for the patients in New Brunswick after her stepdaughter began showing symptoms of the mystery illness, was critical of Léger’s report and said the review was indeed “limited.”
“There was no analysis of potential causes and the analysis was conducted by statisticians and epidemiologists who are not experts in neurology or toxicology,” she wrote in an email.
“The reality is that many patients have found it difficult to find care from other practitioners due to stigma and the systemic challenges faced by Dr. Marrero,” she claimed.
She alleged the report attempts to discredit Marrero and the laboratories where testing was done and ignores data that could signal clustering and environmental concerns.
“The patient reality is that there are geographical clusters, there are test results in common and there are a large portion of patients who have had tests repeated.”
Recommends getting second opinion
Léger’s report offered recommendations for the health authorities and the province. He said a process should be put in place for obtaining a second independent assessment in situations like this.
“The last recommendation is meant to ensure that a process is in place to have two specialists review and agree on a report of undiagnosed neurological illness in a patient. This will help make sure that both are in agreement with the patient’s condition being reported to my office,” he said.
He noted that he found close to 60 per cent of patients in the files he reviewed had been seen “at some point” by another neurologist aside from Marrero.
“Throughout this work, no other neurologist has raised concerns to my office about these or other patients,” he said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has asked for the patient data to be sent to them to review as well. Léger said they’ll be looking for “any trends or issues of concern.”
In May of last year, a study published in the journal JAMA Neurology found there was no evidence to support claims of a mystery brain disease and suggested the media may have played a role in feeding patients’ fears.
— With files from The Canadian Press
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.