A mysterious brain disorder has puzzled one Canadian community for the past two years.
The disorder has been stumping healthcare officials in the sparsely populated area of New Brunswick who are struggling to diagnose or determine whether it might be triggered by environmental factors or contaminants, according to the Guardian.
Patients have reported a range of symptoms to Dr. Alier Marrero, several of which, including muscle wasting, drooling, and teeth chattering, could indicate a cognitive decline, the report said.
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Terriline Porelle told the outlet that she has suffered from an unknown illness that began as an “electric shock” pain in her leg back in 2020, which has now led to vision “like that of a 70-year-old” and even forgetting to write the letter “Q.” Doctors diagnosed her with PTSD, but her symptoms have worsened.
The cases were first acknowledged in March 2021, when the Canadian Association of Neuropathologists released a report asking the public to be on the lookout for people displaying symptoms reminiscent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain disorder. Eight patients have died since 2019 from the identified case group, all of which represented “misclassified clinical diagnoses” that were previously diagnosed as Alzheimer’s or other diseases, the report said.
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In June 2021, an oversight committee was established in the region to review “clinical and epidemiological data” of the patients in the cluster, but further information has not been released.
There have been 48 publicly identified diagnoses of the disorder since 2015, though some scientists indicate that there could be as many as 150 cases that have yet to be processed by the province due to a backlog.
