Federal agency finds no evidence of common cause of neurological illnesses in N.B.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says it found no evidence of a single unusual neurological illness or a common cause in its review of more than 200 New Brunswick patients. But in a new report, quietly posted on the province's website dedicated to the cases of undiagnosed neurological illness, the federal agency says, quote, important uncertainties remain. PHAC launched its review last spring at the request of the province. It assessed the data of 210 patients of Moncton neurologist Dr. Ariel Marrero. Marrero sounded the alarm about a possible mystery illness about six years ago and later raised concerns about elevated levels of herbicides and heavy metals in some patients. Their symptoms range from painful muscle spasms and hallucinations to memory loss and behavioral changes. PHAC says the available evidence points to multiple causes and does not support further investigation of potential exposures or environmental testing. But it doesn't rule out the possibility of a common illness among a subgroup of patients, geographic clustering, or a public health concern. That's because of what it calls overarching limitations with the data, including a lack of diagnosis for most of the patients. It says often patient information did not have a medical summary that described the patient illness. There was a lot of information about tests, but the meaning of the test results was not explained for each patient. We're no further ahead because the patients still don't have treatments or diagnoses and we still don't know what is making New Brunswickers sick. Sarah Nesbitt says many of the patients are frustrated and losing hope. I think at this point everybody's lost faith in the public health agencies to actually find out and look deeper. And okay, if you don't have the available data, ask for it, get it, you know. But they're just kind of saying, well, we did what we did and this is what we can and can't do. And that's where it was left. PHAC's recommendations include getting patients reassessed. In a statement, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Yves Legere says the province is working on that with the regional health authorities. The province has established a nursing coordinator and a dedicated telephone line to answer any questions from patients, their families or anyone else who believes they've been affected. It has also created new environmental testing guidance for doctors and implemented new rules requiring two specialists to sign off on any cases of undiagnosed. to diagnose neurological illness.