Gabrielle suffers from\u00a0poor concentration and memory and\u00a0lost peripheral vision and needs to use\u00a0a cane or wheelchair to move around.<\/p>\n
In an open letter in June, Quigley Cormier and Sarah Nesbitt,\u00a0who serve\u00a0as co-liaisons between patients and the government, had called on Premier Susan Holt to intervene in the investigation after learning\u00a0that the department\u00a0sent only aggregated data<\/a>\u00a0to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for scientific review, instead of raw data.<\/p>\n In health care, aggregate data refers to the summarized, combined information from multiple individual patient records or sources. It’s used to understand trends and patterns at a population level, rather than focusing on individual patients.<\/p>\n Dr. Alier Marrero, the Moncton-based\u00a0neurologist of the 222 patients being reviewed, and one of the specialists who first sounded the alarm about a possible mystery illness about five years ago, had also\u00a0sent an urgent request to provincial and federal officials in June that all raw data be shared with\u00a0PHAC.<\/p>\n He argued\u00a0it would be “nearly impossible for PHAC to reach any conclusion or meaningful recommendations with such limited and partially interpreted set of information.”<\/p>\n Looking at elevated levels of heavy metals, herbicides<\/p>\n The main purpose of\u00a0the\u00a0investigation announced in March<\/a>\u00a0is to further understand concerns\u00a0Marrero\u00a0has\u00a0raised regarding\u00a0elevated levels of certain environmental substances, such as heavy metals and the herbicide glyphosate, in some patients, officials have said.<\/p>\n According to Nesbitt, the department had “cherry picked” information and used phrases such as “higher than normal levels” without sending the federal agency\u00a0actual numbers.<\/p>\n That “doesn’t give the full scope of what’s happening,” she told CBC News in an interview from her home in\u00a0Canaan Station.<\/p>\n “With the raw data in front of the professionals, they’re able to assess the situation a lot better.”<\/p>\n It was the government of New Brunswick that asked the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health to formally engage\u00a0the Public Health Agency of Canada to review all of the data, department spokesperson Meghan Cumby confirmed\u00a0in an email. “This request was submitted to the Public Health Agency of Canada in early August,” she said.<\/p>\n In a statement, Health Minister Dr. John Dornan said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Yves L\u00e9ger and his staff have done “significant and important work to date on the analysis and incorporation of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s [initial] feedback.”<\/p>\n The province asked the federal agency to review all of the data, he said, “so we can draw on every available expertise to better understand these complex cases.”<\/p>\n Nesbitt said she and Quigley Cormier learned the news during a meeting with Holt, Dornan and Deputy Health Minister Eric Beaulieu\u00a0last Tuesday, prior to the announcement, and shared it with patients and their families.<\/p>\n Some people were initially discouraged by the delayed report, she said, noting some patients are getting sicker and about 50 have died.<\/p>\n “But what’s behind the delay is we got what we wanted \u2014 we wanted all raw data,” Nesbitt said, adding that “a lot of work can be done in those few extra months.”<\/p>\n Still want Ottawa to take the lead<\/p>\n Patients continue to lobby for\u00a0a formal public health investigation, led by federal scientists, to figure out what’s making them sick, said Quigley Cormier.<\/p>\n According to Marrero, about 500 patients across seven provinces are now suffering unexplained neurological symptoms, ranging from painful muscle spasms and hallucinations, to memory loss and behavioural changes. Some have high levels of heavy metals, herbicides, and rare antibodies.<\/p>\n “A formal public health investigation by definition looks to identify a cause of a public health threat through unbiased inclusionary comprehensive data collection and a commitment to further testing, which is different than our experience with [Public Health New Brunswick]\u00a0to date,” Quigley Cormier said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n The department spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether this is being considered, or why.<\/p>\n PHAC did not respond to a request for comment, but has previously told CBC\u00a0News\u00a0that while it remains ready to provide additional support if asked, New Brunswick is the lead jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Unanswered questions, premier has said<\/p>\n In 2021\u00a0the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health studied an initial\u00a0group of 48 patients, primarily clustered on the Acadian Peninsula and in the Moncton region, and found\u00a0no evidence of a common illness<\/a>, according to a report issued in 2022.<\/p>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/john-dornan.jpg\")
Health Minister Dr. John Dornan said the province has asked the Public Health Agency of Canada to review all the data ‘so we can draw on every available expertise to better understand these complex cases.’ (Ed Hunter\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sarah-nesbitt-patient-co-liaison.jpg\")
Sarah Nesbitt said she and co-patient liaison Stacie Quigley Cormier are grateful the premier and health minister listened to their concerns. (Google Meet\/CBC)<\/p>\n