Public Health Investigates ALS Cases in Eastern Townships

Eastern Township public health officials have launched an investigation into Lou Gehrig’s disease cases in the region after a Windsor, Que., woman alerted them to nearly 20 residents who had the disorder.

The Center intégré universitaire de health et de services sociaux de l’Estrie, the regional health board, said in an email Wednesday that it is working to verify whether the proportion of people affected by the disease in the area is worrisome or not. That process can take weeks.

“At this stage, it is far too early to make any assumptions,” the health agency said in an unsigned email. “We want to maintain a broad vision to evaluate the various possible sources.”

The Montreal Journal first reported on the story.

If controllable environmental factors are identified as triggers, public health would consider conducting a second, more complex study that could take several years, the emailed statement said.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes loss of muscle control.

Julie Dubois, who lives in Windsor, Que., said her husband Marco Brindle died of ALS last January.

Through word of mouth, she heard about 18 people who have the disease in Windsor and the surrounding area.

“That’s when I said, ‘That’s enough!'” Dubois said. “When I got the statistics that I had, it didn’t even take half an hour for public health to call back.”

Dr. Angela Gange, the director of the ALS program at the Montreal Neurological Institute and a professor at McGill University, will serve as an advisor on the study.

A person can inherit ALS through a mutated gene, but it can also develop in someone without a family history of the disease.

When there are no clear factors for the development of ALS, the case is considered sporadic — the type that all 18 people Dubois mentioned to public health officials appear to have, Gange said.

She noted that while studies have shown that professional American football players and people in the US military have an increased risk of developing ALS, the exposure that triggered the disease in them is not yet known.

“In none of these do we know what part of their exposure, whether it was a physical contact or whether they are exposed to pesticides or other chemicals that can trigger ALS,” Gange said, referring to the athletes and veterans with the disease .

Claudine Cook, executive director of the ALS Society of Quebec, said more research is needed on the deadly disease.

“The only way more research is going to happen is if we have more funding,” Cook said.

“Until there is a cure, until there is an effective long-term treatment that stops ALS, ALS Quebec is there to support families at all stages of the disease.”

With files from Sarah-Kate Dallaire and Radio-Canada’s Brigitte Marcoux, Emilie Richard and Guillaume Renaud, prepared by Holly Cabrera