[donna]

would not be routinely removed from surgical instruments; standard sterilization procedures cannot shift them

If you have surgery with anything other than new instruments you will get Alzheimer's?

[LibWhacker]

Sort of sounds like it, doesn’t it? Or they’ll have to come up with a different sterilization routine if it turns out in fact to be transmissible.

[Axenolith]

They used a crappy description there. Sterilization procedures dont reach high enough temperatures to degrade amyloid proteins, if they don’t wash off they still work. If the instruments were heated to 400 or 500 degrees it would do the trick but then there is probably a lot of instrumentation that can’t take that.

It would be interesting to see a graph of elective and necessary surgery versus incidence of Alzheimer’s over the last 40 or 50 years. If the incidence of it in India rises (nearly non existent there) over time that would be telling too...

[CyberAnt]

“If you have surgery with anything other than new instruments you will get Alzheimer’s?”

ONLY IF THE PERSON THEY OPERATED ON BEFORE YOU .. ALREADY HAD ALZHEIMER’S. But, to be safe, I would demand new instruments.

So, this is not a guarantee for every surgery. Please don’t think that.