Post by JoannaL on May 5, 2021 16:07:41 GMT -5
Mysterious Brain Disease Spreading in Canada
Canadian officials are puzzled by close to 50 confirmed and suspected cases of a mysterious brain disease in the province of New Brunswick.
It began in June 2018 when Roger Ellis, a healthy man in his 60s, experienced a seizure and collapsed at his home. According to his son, Steve Ellis, his father “had delusions, hallucinations, weight loss, aggression, repetitive speech. ... At one point he couldn’t even walk. So in the span of three months, we were being brought to a hospital to tell us they believed he was dying – but no one knew why.”
Ellis’s doctors initially suspected CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease), a rare, but fatal, human prion condition, aka “Mad Cow Disease,” however, testing ruled out CJD.
It wasn’t until March of this year that Steve Ellis came across a copy of a public health memo warning of a cluster of patients suffering from an unknown brain disease. “The first thing I said was, ‘This is my dad,’” the younger Ellis recalled.
Roger Ellis is now under the care of Alier Marrero, M.D., a neurologist with Dr. Georges-L-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick. Dr. Marrero first came across the baffling disease in 2015, but the cases have gradually increased with the province currently tracking 48 cases.
The condition affects both men and women ranging in age from 18 to 86 and thus far, at least six people have died from the disease. The patients are all confined to the Acadian Peninsula and Moncton areas of New Brunswick. The majority of individuals began experiencing symptoms within the past three years, however, one patient is believed to have been affected as early as 2013.
According to Marrero, symptoms are wide-ranging and vary. Initially, there are usually behavioral changes such as anxiety, depression and irritability, along with unexplained muscle aches and spasms, and patients experience insomnia and memory problems. There also can be speech impairments, such as stuttering or word repetition, making it difficult for the individual to communicate. Another symptom is rapid weight loss and muscle atrophy, as well as visual disturbances, coordination problems and involuntary muscle twitching. Some patients are forced to use walkers or even wheelchairs. Additionally, there have been reports of disturbing hallucinatory dreams and/or waking auditory hallucinations.
Several patients have presented with transient “Capgras delusion,” a psychiatric disorder in which the patient believes someone close to him/her has been replaced by an impostor. “It’s quite disturbing,” Marrero explained, “because, for instance, a patient would tell his wife, ‘Sorry ma’am, you cannot get in bed, I’m a married man,’ and even if the wife gives her name, he’d say, ‘You’re not the real one.’”
At present, there is no treatment for the disease and only palliative care to alleviate the pain and discomfort from some of the symptoms is possible.
While the disease is currently confined to specific regions in New Brunswick, because the Acadian peninsula is comprised of fishing communities and sandy beaches, Marrero believes the condition could be more widespread. “Are we seeing the tip of the iceberg?” he mused. “Maybe. I’m hoping we can capture this very fast so we can stop this.”
Steve Ellis, who founded a Facebook support group for families affected by the unknown condition wants government to commit to transparency concerning the illness. “I know they’re working on that, but how did this happen?” he wants to know. “As a family, we’re very cognizant of the fact he’s likely going to die from this, and we just hope that whether it happens before he dies or after that there are answers – and accountability if it’s something that could have been prevented.”
Sources: Jessica Murphy, BBC News, May 4, 2021; Aiden Cox, CBC, April 27, 2021; and Rachael Rettner, LiveScience, March 30, 2021.