Alert in Canada for a new neurological disease …

Canada reported on Wednesday the death of a sixth person following a mysterious neurological disease which also affects 44 other people in the east of the country and whose existence was not reported until last March.

The first case of the disease dates back to 2015 although it was only identified this year. The country’s health authorities six years ago detected a group of patients with neurological syndrome in the province of New Brunswick, in the east of the country.

However, the existence of the disease was not made public until March 17, 2021 in a report from New Brunswick health officials that was leaked to the media.

Symptoms of the disease include, but are not limited to, muscle spasms, memory loss, atrophy, vision problems, and the rapid development of dementia. Medical authorities have ruled out that the mysterious disease is linked to prions, misfolded proteins that cause neurological diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob, which in cattle leads to so-called mad cow disease.

Although researchers have not identified the cause of the disease, the Canadian Public Health Agency noted in March that it could be a completely new disease caused by some type of exposure to a toxin in the environment.

So far, Canadian authorities have provided little information on the victims, although they reported that the disease affects people of all ages, according to the CBC, the public radio and television network.

The geographic distribution has not been specified either, although the information published so far concentrates the cases detected in the Acadian Peninsula, a region located on the shores of the Atlantic, and north of the city of Moncton. , the largest city in New Brunswick.

Speaking to CBC, Yvon Godin, mayor of a small town on the Acadian peninsula, said that the lack of public information is a source of anxiety and that “we need to know, as soon as possible, what is causing this. disease”.