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Yesterday, I wrote about a case of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) in Jacksonville, Fla. The initial report said the patient, a 23-year old woman, did not acquire it by eating tainted meat.
Today, I call that assertion into serious question. Intrigued that CJD could be caught in some other way than through eating meat from a cow with Mad Cow Disease, I did some online research.
It is true Mad Cow Disease is not the only way to get CJD. There are two different types of CJD. One is called “classic,” in which there is a spontaneous mutation of normal brain protein into an abnormal protein” that then “leads to the production of more abnormal protein.” The other form of CJD is called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease or “vCJD.” This comes from “ingesting meat infected with the prion that causes mad cow disease (BSE).” The meat has to be contaminated by nervous system tissue to cause vCJD.
Here’s the kicker. “Most of the cases of classic CJD have been diagnosed in people between the ages of 55 and 75” because it takes “between 10 to 40 years” to become symptomatic after the protein mutates. Again, “Classic CJD almost always occurs in people over 50 years old. Once someone gets classic CJD, they may live for 6 to 12 months.”
Variant CJD, on the other hand, is a disease of young people. The average age of onset is 29 years of age. The symptoms of vCJD are slightly different and patients live slightly longer than those with classic CJD. “There have been 153 cases of vCJD reported in the world since the first case was identified in 1995.” It took about ten years for the first cases of vCJD to be reported after Mad Cow Disease infected British cattle.
The Jacksonville patient is too young to have classic CJD if my sources are correct. If she has Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, then it is the vCJD.
The question, then, becomes where or how did she eat meat tainted with Mad Cow Disease? Did she travel to Britain during the 1990s and eat British meat before Mad Cow Disease was under control there? Or, was she exposed to Canadian beef when Mad Cow Disease was discovered there? Or, did she eat beef in her school lunch program that came from downer cattle that had Mad Cow Disease? I simply do not know, but I call for thorough investigation.
Source: CDC Fact Sheets, State of Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/factsheets/madcow.htm
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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1 comment:
There are other ways to be exposed to CJD - 'iatrogenic'. That is by medical means. The recipients of infected tissue and infected hormorne therapies, Also surgery using medical instruments that were previously used on a patient incubating CJD. Neurosurgery/eye. The Authorities do not want this to be mentioned too much in the public domain. Many surgeries have been performed and then the orginisation finds out the person had CJD. Some tell the exposed folk and say the risk is minimal, However there is no surveillance or register kept of those people that have been exposed so if they do pop there clogs with CJD unless a connection is made back to the sugery then if they get listed at all then they are listed as "Sporadic" I know of 4 hospitals that there has been "incidents" Time will tell if there is a pattern of Deaths via surgical instruments and by then we will have a bigger pool of infected persons awaiting a revolting death.
N.Z exposed.
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