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
Mt A researcher looking for more responses to neurological disease survey, joins call for more study
On today’s Tantramar Report, we talk with Dr. Matthew Betti of Mount Allison, who is surveying New Brunswickers in an effort to narrow down the potential causes of New Brunswick’s mystery brain disease. Betti has recently joined a call for provincial and federal involvement in studies to help determine what’s been harming the over 200 patients currently reporting undiagnosed symptoms.
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Looking further into NB’s mystery brain disease
A Mount Allison researcher is going to help contribute some clarity to the confusion over New Brunswick’s mystery neurological disease. Math and computer science professor Matthew Betti wants to survey and study the cluster of cases being investigated as related to a possible new neurological disorder.
In a recent episode of CHMA Talks, Matt Betti explained the motivation for his study, and how it would differ from the publicly available work done to date by New Brunswick Public Health. Later in the episode, we spoke with journalist Matthew Halliday about his coverage of New Brunswick’s possible new mystery disease. Hear that episode here:
Matt Betti specializes in infectious disease modelling and has worked for Health Canada throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Betti says the matter of a potential new neurological disorder needs independent study. “As we’ve seen over the last few years, something as simple as a communicable disease can be highly politicized very easily,” says Betti. “I think it’s important to to make sure that the science is done right, without undue influence of politics, or outside interests.”
“That’s part of the reason why we have this infrastructure that is academia,” says Betti, “to do ideally unbiased, independent research, from which you will not see negative consequences from your employer, from government, etc.”
Betti says he’s interested in further exploring the data about the possible new disease, and that the surveying done to date, as published in a report by New Brunswick Public Health, has been preliminary, not extensive enough to draw conclusions about the existence or not of a new disease.… Continue