MLAs question health officials on handling of neurological disorder investigation
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton and her colleagues on the New Brunswick legislature’s Public Accounts committee had a chance to pepper deputy Health minister Eric Beaulieu with questions on Tuesday.
The department of health was before the committee to discuss their 2021-22 annual report, and MLAs took the opportunity to ask questions about a number of health issues, including the past and ongoing handling of cases of neurological degenerative symptoms of unknown origin in the province.
While MLA and former Health Minister Dorothy Shephard wondered why the investigation into the mysterious symptoms hadn’t been put to bed, Mitton’s line of questioning tended towards asking for more public disclosure of decision making processes.
Mitton asked Beaulieu about new involvement from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), who are sending two epidemiologists to the province to help Dr. Alier Marrero complete reporting on between 100 and 200 neurological cases that the neurologist has flagged as having no known cause. Beaulieu said the two epidemiologists would be arriving in late September, and he told Mitton that everything that can be made public about their work, will be made public.
Mitton later asked Beaulieu to explain in detail why communications between federal and provincial scientists were abruptly shut down in May of 2021, and referred to results of Right to Information (RTI) requests made by media and the advocacy group Bloodwatch.… Continue
Survey Says: With enough data, this researcher hopes to narrow down causes for NB’s mystery disease
A Mount Allison researcher is continuing his work exploring possible causes of unexplained neurological symptoms that have been noticed in New Brunswickers over the past 8 years, and also backing the latest call for the federal and provincial governments to formally investigate.
Dr. Matthew Betti is a Mount A professor of math and computer science who specializes in modeling disease spread. Last year, he started a research survey to help narrow down possible causes or circumstances related to the over 200 people who are reportedly suffering from an atypical, unknown neurological disease in the eastern parts of New Brunswick. And last month, he signed his name to an open letter written by Moncton medical student James Paddle, calling for an immediate public health investigation.
Paddle studied and later did a work placement with Dr. Alier Marrero, the neurologist who first identified patients with atypical neurological symptoms. Up until May 2021, Marrero’s work was being supported jointly by New Brunswick Public Health and Public Health Canada. But then, New Brunswick cut ties with Public Health Canada, and appointed a steering committee to review the cases they had on file, which had been capped at 48. That committee later concluded that most of the 48 cases were actually attributable to known causes, and New Brunswick Public Health closed the investigation.
But Marrero has continued to see more and more patients which he says have sets of symptoms he can’t explain.… Continue