5 dead from CJD (cluster mad cow) in Ulster County, NY...WTF?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stories/lo101604s9.shtml

County CJD Cluster
Health Department Will Probe Deaths
By Gabriel J. Wasserman
Poughkeepsie Journal
10-16-4

KINGSTON -- A fifth Ulster County death has been linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and incurable brain illness.

According to published reports, an autopsy revealed the disease as the cause of death for a female who died in November at Kingston Hospital. That brought to five the total number of Ulster cases over the past year.

No cause for the cluster has been identified, which is under investigation by the state Department of Health. Creutzfeldt-Jakob is a mysterious illness, with 80 percent of the cases having no known cause.

"It's not a communicable disease," said Dean Palen, director of public health for Ulster County, meaning it cannot be spread "person-to-person, from casual contact."

The state sees approximately 20 cases of "sporadic CJD" annually, said state Department of Health spokeswoman Claire Pospisil, referring to cases for which the cause is unknown. Other cases are linked to genetics.

Kingston Hospital officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

"We are not discussing any specifics on any cases due to patient confidentiality," Pospisil said.

Brent Tobey, whose father Richard died of the disease Oct. 9, would like to see more effort put toward prevention of the disease.

"We need to find answers as to why and how my father contracted this disease. It's just horrible for anybody's family to have to go through," he said. "This disease takes away everything that someone holds dear to them, to the point where they can't do anything, they forget how to swallow. We need to find out a way to prevent it."

more

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/health/1004/14braindisease.html

In the past three months, four people in Ulster County have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a neurological disorder that afflicts only one in a million people a year worldwide.

There is no cure for the illness and it is invariably fatal, eating away at the brain and causing symptoms that include behavioral changes, visual disturbances, involuntary movements, blindness, weakness of the extremities and a coma.

The disease gained widespread public attention in recent years because it can, in some cases, be caused by exposure to mad cow disease.

However, state health officials cautioned that there was no reason to believe that any of the people who died had become ill from contaminated meat.

"We are looking into the suspected cases in Ulster County, and at this point we don't see anything that would be a concern for public health," said Claire Pospisil, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Health.

more..
... A fourth death, that of Kingston resident Richard Tobey occurred at ... but best known form of the disease, commonly called Mad Cow Disease, is contracted ...
www.midhudsoncentral.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13127440&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6

[jean]

1. I just signed on and must say your array of buttons cheered me

right up after reading about the scary scary mad cow disease in Ulster County.

[truthseeker1]

2. Update today - putting the lid on this story

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stories/lo101904s1.shtml

State: Public not at risk from brain disease

KINGSTON -- An outbreak of a rare brain disease in Ulster County now appears to be less severe than was first thought after state health officials said Monday three cases had been confirmed in two counties.

more....

They're really being careful not to mention "mad cow" in any of these stories.

[tanyev]

3. Oh, less severe.

Well, that's OK then. Move along!

[realFedUp]

4. kicking for the mad cows out there....

[Donkeyboy75]

5. I'm no fan of the meat industry,

but this doesn't mean that mad cow is suddenly on the loose. SJD has many causes. It's not necessarily from tainted beef.

[truthseeker1]

6. I'm not taking any chances

been off of beef for a year now (with no intentions of going back)!

[Eloriel]

9. There's another alternative, for those who don't want to give up beef

and that's grass-fed beef, which is much healthier for us anyway.

Google should yield some great info on this including suppliers around the country -- small, private farmers interested in sustainable agriculture and healthy food supplies.

[Donkeyboy75]

12. Unfortunately, grass-fed doesn't taste as good.

It's not difficult to find grain-fed beef suppliers that give their cows no animal byproducts.

[truthseeker1]

16. Naw.....I'm already on my way to becoming a vegan.

If I decide to have some steak though (or chicken or pork), I will definitely find a local farm and make sure the animals haven't been mistreated or fed antibiotics, hormones or pesticides.

The silver lining in the mad cow outbreak is it has actually led me down the path of discovering just how rotten the meat industry is and how irresponsible our govt is in regulating it. And now I've discovered a life without meat - and honestly I don't even miss it! What was even more shocking was my husband was willing to give it up too!

:bounce:

[Maiden England]

7. it may not be liked to BSE (mad cow dx)

unless its variant CJD, which I believe can only be tested for in a lab in the UK. Assuming that either they don't have the results back yet, or its not vCJD, then its probably not a public health issue.

[Sugarcoated]

8. Spontanious CJD is extremely rare

and even rarer to pop up in a cluster like that. Also, alot of the "spontaneous" CJD deaths could actually be caused by tainted beef. There was a cluster here in South Jersey, up to eleven people, all worked at or frequented the Garden State Race Track.

My family and I haven't eated beef in over a year.

I want every cow tested - like they do in Japan. It would cost less than $12 a head of cattle, at least the last time I researched it.

[Caria]

11. Feds Wont Allow Mad Cow Testing

April 10, 2004
The Department of Agriculture on Friday refused to allow a Kansas beef producer to test all its cattle for mad cow disease, saying such sweeping tests were "not scientifically warranted."

http://www.unknownnews.net/040412madcow.html

In other words, if you don't test, then you can say you don't have any evidence...

[LibLabUK]

15. Hmm..

"In the past three months, four people in Ulster County have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a neurological disorder that afflicts only one in a million people a year worldwide."

There's 6 billion people (and change) in the world, so that's 6000 cases per year worldwide, doesn't quite have the same ring as 1 in a 1,000,000 though.

Of the 60,000 cases in the last decade, 143 are nvCJD and are thought to be as a result of BSE infected meat.

"The disease gained widespread public attention in recent years because it can, in some cases, be caused by exposure to mad cow disease."

The link has never been shown. Infact the most common cause is known as sporadic CJD, it emerges spontaneously with no infectious causative agent.


"However, state health officials cautioned that there was no reason to believe that any of the people who died had become ill from contaminated meat."

Do they even test for BSE in the US?

[porphyrian]

10. They must not be de-regulating the cattle industry fast enough... - n/t

[Iceburg]

13. No CJD here ...Nope... NO WMDs here... Nope... NO SARS here ... Nope

No denial here ...nope

And the great State of Denial goes to ___?

You Americans kill me, er' others

[fujiyama]

14. I knew there was a reason

I didn't eat beef.

[Sabriel]

17. Obviously they don't watch The X-Files

One episode ("Our Town") deals with a similar outbreak. Turns out they were processing more than chicken at the local poultry processing plant.... Icky.