A major scandal is brewing in Canada
Everything about this story is mysterious: the disease and the obstruction of its study. The Guardian's exclusive article describes the story of Canadian scientist Michael Coulthart. He complained in leaked emails to a colleague that an eastern Canadian province had stopped investigating the origin of a mysterious brain disease that has already affected more than 200 people. Moreover, he himself is not allowed to delve into the problem. And Coulthart himself and the sick people see a political trace in this.
Canada's top federal scientist says he has been blocked from investigating a mysterious brain disease in New Brunswick. He raised concerns that more than 200 people affected by the disease are experiencing unexplained neurological decline. And there is no need for delay here.
The allegations, made in emails to a colleague seen by the British newspaper The Guardian, come two years after the eastern province closed its investigation into a possible “cluster” of similar cases.
“All I will say is… it is that my scientific opinion is that there is something real going on in New Brunswick that absolutely cannot be explained by the bias or personal agenda of an individual neurologist. Some cases are best explained by the latter, but there are too many of them (now there are more than 200),” said microbiologist Michael Coulthart.
In 2021, New Brunswick health officials warned that more than 40 residents were suffering from a possible unknown neurological syndrome with symptoms similar to those of the degenerative brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Symptoms were varied and dramatic: some patients began to drool, others felt as if insects were crawling on their skin.
However, a year later, an independent oversight committee created by the province determined that the group of patients had likely been misdiagnosed and were suffering from known diseases such as cancer and dementia.
The committee and the New Brunswick government also questioned the work of neurologist Alier Marrero, to whom dozens of patients were initially referred by confused doctors in the region. Subsequently, Marrero was able to identify even more similar cases of the mysterious disease.
Since then, the doctor has become a fierce advocate for patients he believes are being neglected in the province.
The committee's final report, which concluded that there was no «cluster» of people suffering from an unknown brain syndrome, marked the end of the provincial investigations.
But leaked emails seen by the Guardian reveal a very different story and suggest senior scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) remain concerned about the cause — and debilitating symptoms — of a seemingly inexplicable disease that disproportionately affects young people.
In an October 2023 email exchange with another PHAC member, Coulthart, who led the federal investigation into the New Brunswick disease in 2021, said he was «essentially cut off» from any involvement in the matter, adding that, in his opinion, the reason was political.
In the same letter, he added that he believes “environmental exposures—or combinations of exposures—trigger and/or accelerate various neurodegenerative syndromes” in people apparently susceptible to various protein misfolding diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Coulthart argues that the phenomenon does not easily fit into the «shallow paradigms» of diagnostic pathology, and the complexity of the problem has given policymakers a «loophole» to conclude that «nothing concrete» is going on.
«I trust that the truth will emerge over time, but for now all we can do… is to continue to collect information about cases that come to us as suspected prion disease,» Coulthart wrote.
New Brunswick Health did not respond to specific questions about Coulthart's emails.
“Although Dr. Alier Marrero has made statements regarding findings and observations regarding a large number of patients, since May 2023, New Brunswick Public Health has only received a total of 29 complete notifications from Dr. Marrero. They are being considered. To date, Public Health New Brunswick has not received similar notifications from other physicians,” a spokesperson for the provincial health department said.
Coulthart's email comes more than a year after Marrero asked the Canadian government to conduct environmental testing that he believed would show the involvement of glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide with acute toxicity that is dangerous to animals and people. ).
Marrero, who initially worked closely with Coulthart, declined to comment on the October emails, instead referring questions to the provincial health department.
In the years since cases first reported to health officials, victims say various levels of government ignored their plight.
«Politicians don't want to admit there's something serious going on because then they'll have to deal with it,» complained one young woman, adding that she hasn't received any help or action since the province released its final report. despite worsening symptoms.
She now suffers from muscle tremors and poor coordination, and doctors said her deteriorating vision and memory resemble those of a patient who was several decades older.
«My condition has progressed and things have become much more difficult,» she added.
The woman, who asked not to be named, can't cook because her hands are too hard to control and she now eats almost entirely frozen food. products. As her memory deteriorates, she needs constant reminders to take her medications, shower and eat.
“I can't drive, I have no sense of independence. I don’t recognize myself internally.”
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