What's making New Brunswickers sick? Premier Susan Holt intends to find out
New study concludes no mystery brain disease, but too many unanswered questions for N.B. investigation to stop
Premier Susan Holt says it's critical the province push ahead with its investigation into what's making some New Brunswickers sick, despite a new scientific study that found no evidence of a mystery brain disease.
"There's too many unanswered questions for us to stop the work that Public Health is doing to be able to provide patients — and potentially future patients — with the information they need about what's causing these illnesses," Holt told reporters Thursday in Fredericton during her weekly update on U.S. tariffs.
She was responding to questions about a report, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, known as JAMA.
Thirteen Canadian doctors and researchers reassessed 25 of the 222 patients diagnosed by Moncton neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero as having a "neurological syndrome of unknown cause."
They concluded all of the cases — 14 living and 11 who have died — were attributable to well-known conditions, such as Alzheimer's traumatic brain injury and cancer.
Their analysis of the patients also provides "strong evidence against a common cause of the patients' conditions, such as exposure to an environmental toxin," because of the wide range of problems, they wrote.
The work the province is doing "remains critical," Holt said.
"We need to work with the patients and the population of New Brunswick to answer the question about what is making New Brunswickers sick," she said.
"The study didn't answer that question."
Government report due this summer
In March, the New Brunswick government launched the "data analysis phase" of its investigation into undiagnosed neurological symptoms that Marrero says are now affecting some 500 people in seven provinces. The investigation will consider whether environmental substances, such as the herbicide glyphosate or heavy metals, are a factor.
"It is anticipated the results of the analysis will soon be shared with the Public Health Agency of Canada," Dr. Yves Léger, New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health, said in an email.
A public report with recommendations is expected this summer.
"I think that the work that Public Health is doing and the support we're getting from the Public Health Agency of Canada is critical for us to continue to try to answer those questions for New Brunswickers, knowing that there might not be one answer," Holt said.
"There may be multiple things that are at play here in different areas of the province and in different situations."
The premier did not say whether the province will help Marrero's hundreds of other patients to get a second opinion, as the study urges.
In an emailed statement, New Brunswick Medical Society president Dr. Lise Babin said, "We trust that the process that has recently been put in place by Public Health New Brunswick will consider all relevant research and data related to this ongoing issue."
Babin said she could not comment on the "details or merits of specific medical or scientific articles."
Holt pledged last summer to launch a transparent scientific investigation if elected in the October provincial election.
New Brunswickers suffering from unexplained symptoms and the doctors trying to help them had "been ignored" by the Blaine Higgs government "for far too long," she said in a statement at the time.
"New Brunswickers deserve answers."