22 yr old may have contracted Cruetzfeldt Jakob Disease from surgery.

[Blue Diadem]

http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=8132511

Portsmouth woman may have contracted rare disease

snip:
Aretha,22, is confined to a hospital bed, unconscious, inside Maryview Medical Center. Her family says her health rapidly got worse after having gastrobypass surgery less than three months ago. They say her motor skills began to worsen and her memory began to fade.

"This is a very rare condition," said Dr. Demetria Lindsay, Director of the Portsmouth Health Department. "It is not easily passed from person to person. You can not get it from casual contact or even close contact."

Doctors say there are only about 200 cases of CJD in the United States every year. They say it's passed through surgeries and in rare situations by eating meat. The Health Department says there is no reason to worry, but they are trying to figure out how Aretha got it.

----------------------------------
Passed through surgery? I had no idea

[phantom power]

1. I heard recently that hospitals are going back to recycling surgical instruments.

Which strikes me as good in some ways, but you cannot destroy a prion in an autoclave.

[ensho]

4. and there you have it - "cannot destroy a prion in an autoclave" which means

people who have mad cow but haven't shown symptoms yet, have a surgery for something or other and leave the prions on equipment that is only autoclaved.

our neo con govt. health dept. lies. regularly.

[LibertyorDeath]

10. What does destroy a prion ???

:shrug:

[phantom power]

14. The BSE prion is supposedly stable to 700 degrees or so...

If you apply sufficient temperature, it can be destroyed. That's pretty hot, though. Hotter than a normal autoclave, and you can't cook meat that hot without burning it badly.

[RC]

19. A prion is a protein. 700° is a bit much here.

Prions can be destroyed with a longer sterilization cycle of 134° C (273°F) for 18 minutes.
This sounds more realistic as prions are organic and not mineral.

Google is your friend. Friends are made to be used.:P

[phantom power]

37. FWIW, here is my source:

Temperature inactivation of prions takes place only at 330C and a pressure of 3 bar during 30 minutes. Normal cooking, heating and freezing do not inactivate the prions. It is believed small wounds make a direct infection due to contact with BSE material possible. Butchers are therefore advised to take safety precautions.

http://www.ourfood.com/BSE.html

330C = 626F (so, not quite 700F)

[NoodleyAppendage]

31. Radiation. Standard autoclaves won't work.

Generally the worry of iatrogenic (i.e., treatment caused) CJD is from implements used during neurosurgery. This is the first case I've heard of regarding non-neurological surgical interventions.

Something important to consider. This could simply be a case of sporatic CJD, not related to the surgery, but is now being used by the family to sue the hospital.

J

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

11. Recycling medical tools

is *not* in any way good.. If any industry should be allowed to not recycle thats the one..

[backscatter712]

25. My mom's a retired nurse,

and she was trained back in the '60s, when procedures included doing things like boiling or autoclaving used syringes & such to resterilize them.

Now, they've gone to 100% disposable, one-use-only syringes. It didn't used to be that way...

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

30. They used to do allot of things in medicine that they dont do today

most of the time were far better off without! Im just saying that sticking me with a needle used on someone else (or using other equipment) is wrong (if it can be avoided)

[Coexist]

20. please explain...

I'm not as smart as you.

[phantom power]

39. Prions are proteins...

that are versions of normal proteins, but mis-folded. They are believed to catalyse the mis-folding of other normal proteins, and so they propagate themselves. They gradually denature normal proteins in nerve tissue, and kill the victim.

They are hard to destroy, because their alternate forms are very stable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Gastrobypass surgery is so risky

My friend's doctor told her just last week that he would NEVER recommend it; it is far too dangerous.

[livetohike]

3. My husband's Aunt passed away from CJD in 1994

The doctor gave the family copies of the medical journal relating to CJD - it's a horrible disease.

Any instruments used in the brain of a CJD patient cannot be used again. Sterilization does not kill the prions ....

[Blue Diadem]

23. I'm sorry livetohike.

That had to be very difficult for you and your DH's family.

:hug:

[livetohike]

24. Thanks OurVotesCount-Ohio

:hug: She was 63 years old when she died and has six older sisters who are all alive and in their 80's now....

None of us had ever heard of CJD then. It was heartbreaking.

[depakid]

5. In "rare situations," by eating "meat"

Uh, no.

In most situations, by eating contaminated meat- that's the vector.

[ensho]

7. I'd bet the neo cons eat beef from tested, clean cattle

I'd bet big bucks if I had them.

[depakid]

9. I doubt it

Disease strikes rich and poor alike.

It'll be interesting to look at the epi curves for BSE in the coming decade, though.

[Horse with no Name]

13. I don't doubt that at all

there is a reason that they don't routinely test our beef for "mad cow" disease.
It is called the Beef Lobby. Very powerful people, those.

[depakid]

15. No question about that. America's meat supply isn't safe

but that doesn't mean that these folks don't eat at restaurants or that they always purchase (or know they're purchasing) free range beef.

That's the irony- they're happy enough to poison themselves along with anyone else.

[dflprincess]

22. Maybe they just don't eat hamburger

That's where most the risk is because God only knows what parts get ground into it.

[Blue Diadem]

16. That's what I always thought too.

I always thought it was opposite of what was stated in the article.

[Greyskye]

6. 200 cases a year?

Wasn't it only a year or two ago that they were saying that cases of CJD in the US were extremely rare? Now it's 200 cases a year? :wtf:

[Tesha]

8. 200 cases among 300,000,000 *IS* pretty rare.

That's less than one in a million.

Tesha

[Horse with no Name]

36. yet think about this. LESS than 1% of our beef supply is tested

factor that in.
Factor that this disease sometimes doesn't show up for years. Factor in that very few individuals are even tested for this disease.
Then that 200 cases a year ceases to be less rare.
We cannot even begin to imagine what the future holds for CJD with the beef industry in cahoots with this administration.

[Horse with no Name]

12. I would guess that our food supply is thorougly contaminated

by the greedy republicans and the powerful beef industry lobby.
There IS a reason that they do not test cows and there IS a reason that other countries do not import our beef anymore.
Connect the dots.
The people at the highest risk for this are the elderly, the very young, and the immunocompromised.
The people that, in other words, would most likely NOT be tested for this disease if they died unexpectedly.

[CountAllVotes]

17. I agree

and I haven't eaten any beef in years for this reason. It is not that I do not like beef, I am afraid of it! :scared:

:kick: & recommend!

[Blue Diadem]

26. Wasn't there a story around here about a rancher who wanted to test his cattle?

It was so he assure his customers that his beef was free from BSE. I don't remember which governmental agency said absolutely not. That can do nothing but raise skepticism when someone wants to voluntarily test and they're not allowed.

[Horse with no Name]

28. Funny you mentioned that

I posted it on another thread a little bit ago.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6108
The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration "will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows," but the US government has said such private testing is illegal. "U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out." Way back in 1997, the book Mad Cow USA by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber exposed the US government's failure to protect cattle and people against this bizarre and always fatal brain disease, including the failure to adequately test US cattle. One decade later the US cover-up continues.

[Blue Diadem]

34. Yes! that's the one I remember.

I wasn't aware it had gone to court last year and had a positive ruling only to have an appeal.

Damn..why don't they want those tests? ah..stupid question..I know why they don't want those tests.

[Hekate]

18. "200 cases a year"? I thought the claim was that there are none.

:scared:

Hekate

[Horse with no Name]

21. and that is without any type of routine testing

Image what the numbers really are.:scared:

[varkam]

27. I had thought that CJD had an incubation period of several years

:shrug:

[leftchick]

33. sometimes it can take decades to appear

but not always.

[lonestarnot]

29. Oh no need to worry....

FUCK you health department!

[Blue Diadem]

32. I decided to research a little..had no idea prions have been found in tonsils and appendix

http://www.cjdfoundation.org/sites/default/documents/aboutcjd.pdf

Page 17 talks about the findings.

[garybeck]

35. Isn't CJD the same thing as Mad Cow Disease? n/t

[Blue Diadem]

38. looks like there are 4 categories

sporadic, inherited, Iatrogenic and varient.

It appears the 22 yr old has the Iatrogenic form while the varient is from BSE/mad cow.

http://www.cjdfoundation.org/sites/default/documents/aboutcjd.pdf
(page 5)

[ensho]

40. I wonder how legit the 4 categories are?

nt