48 people in the province of New Brunswick in Canada suffered a combination of symptoms such as insomnia, impaired movement, and hallucinations such as visions of dead people. Neurologists have been studying the disease and working on its diagnosis. In the last six years, many people have fallen ill from the disease while six have died, reported The New York Times.

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“People are alarmed”, said Yvon Godin, the mayor of Bertrand, a village in northeastern New Brunswick. “They are asking, ‘Is it environmental? Is it genetic? Is it fish or deer meat? Is it something else?’ Everyone wants answers”. The recent outbreak of the rare disease was reported in Bertrand, reported The New York Times.

One of the victims of the syndrome, Gabrielle Cormier, aged 20, was once a student, who actively participated in figure skating and also aspired to be a pathologist. But over the last few years, she said that she was feeling unusually and overly fatigued and bumped into things. She consulted a doctor, and she was misdiagnosed with mononucleosis. Following that, she was referred to a neurologist, but her health eventually deteriorated. She began experiencing hallucinations, memory lapses and jerking movements, reported The New York Times.

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Medical experts said that despite the advancements in medical science, neurological diseases and conditions can be a grey area such as dementia, even for the best minds. The outbreak of the brain syndrome joins other mysterious medical conditions such as debilitating illness that harmed people in China and Cuba in early 2016 and a baffling kidney disease broke out among workers sugar cane in Nicaragua in 2017.