OREANDA-NEWS. Doctors in Canada informed about an outbreak of a mysterious and potentially dangerous brain disease. Its symptoms contain memory loss, hallucinations, muscle wasting, and problems with eyes. Specialists consider that five cases of the disease caused the death of patients. It is reported by the Guardian.

Currently, 43 cases of the disease have been registered, and the origin of this desease is still unknown. Despite the fact that her symptoms resemble Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the screening results rejected the hypothesis of a prion disease.

Patients with an unknown medical condition initially complained of strange pain, cramping, and behavioral changes, and these symptoms could be explained by anxiety or some depression. However, after 18-36 months pass, the patients began to notice decline in cognitive functions, developed muscle atrophy, drooling and chattering teeth. Some patients began to complain of hallucinations, including the feeling that insects were crawling on their skin.

For the first time they heard about this mysterious disease six years ago. In 2015, only one suspected case was reported, but in 2019 there were 11 cases, and in 2020 - 24. Most cases were recorded in the Akadem Peninsula, a sparsely populated region in northeastern New Brunswick. Although the total number of cases remains low, the population of New Brunswick is less than 800,000. At the same time, scientists do not exclude that the disease may be associated with environmental factors and not be infectious.