New Brunswick (Canada) - A mysterious brain disease is spreading in Canada. 40 people have already died and hundreds have been infected with the previously unknown pathogen. The authorities are concerned.

Severe muscle cramps, visual disturbances, hallucinations: A dangerous disease is on the rise in Canada. Most of those affected are under 45 years old. What triggers the dangerous disease is completely unclear.

Since the pathogen first broke out in the province of New Brunswick in 2019, more than 400 people have fallen ill. 40 of those affected did not survive, reports The Guardian newspaper, citing official figures.

While the government of the particularly affected province initially claimed that it was a case of "cancer" or "dementia", this has now been reversed.

"We need to thoroughly investigate what is making people sick," Susan Holt (47), the newly elected premier of New Brunswick, told the National Post newspaper. "Not only do we not know how to isolate, diagnose and treat it, we don't know what's causing it."

The head of government of the province in eastern Canada, which has a population of just under 850,000, is concerned: "The inexplicability of the disease is agonizing. Not knowing what the cause is, what will happen next, what the treatment will be."

She has asked the federal government in Ottawa to provide more funding to better research the mysterious disease.

According to neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero, who has treated hundreds of sufferers in his practice, the mysterious disease manifests itself through pain in the limbs, balance problems, chattering teeth, severe muscle spasms, visual disturbances, panic attacks and hallucinations. The symptoms appear to be similar to those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The doctor suspects that pesticides could be responsible for the outbreak of the neurodegenerative disease. But the previous provincial government dismissed his expertise.

"My condition is getting worse and things have become much more difficult," one sufferer told The Guardian. She suffers from muscle tremors and poor coordination, can no longer cook because she can barely control her hands and can therefore only eat convenience food.

"Politicians don't want to admit that something serious is going on, because then they would have to deal with it."