3 cases of rare brain disease reported in Oregon

The cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been confirmed over the last eight months, and it’s unclear if these cases are linked at this time, according to the Hood River County Health Department on Friday.

The Oregonian/OregonLive, which was the first to report on the cases, says two of the cases have resulted in deaths. Nexstar’s KOIN reached out to the Hood River County Health Department for confirmation but did not immediately receive a response.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the result of a prion, a type of infectious protein, triggering a body’s normal proteins to misfold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no treatment or cure, and will typically lead to death within a year from when symptoms begin.

A neurodegenerative disorder, CJD is characterized by Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, though they get worse “much faster,” the Mayo Clinic writes. Specifically, symptoms can include memory loss, coordination issues, trouble speaking, and personality changes, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Hood River County health officials say most cases of CJD can happen without a known reason, but sometimes it can be inherited by running in families and in very rare cases, it can be spread through certain medical exposures or by eating infected beef. The latter is often referred to as “variant CJD,” the CDC says.

US beef-eaters reconsider their eating habits

Reuters, New York
Friday, December 26, 2003, Page 6

Though he doesn’t like the thought of it, Willie Fagan is considering a serious change in his diet now that mad cow disease has entered the US.

“I’m about ready to become a damn vegetarian,” Fagan said while seated at a New York City Mc-Donald’s restaurant on Wednesday.

Fagan’s anti-beef sentiment came a day after the US Agriculture Department announced the nation’s first-ever case of mad cow disease.

Although the deadly disease was traced to only a single dairy cow in Washington state, concern is mounting.

Mad cow disease devastated the British beef industry in the 1990s and has been linked to at least 137 human deaths, mostly in Britain.

Many American meat eaters brushed off Tuesday’s announcement. But some, like Fagan, weren’t willing to take any chances. For now, Fagan said he’s opting for fish filet and fries over his Big Mac preference.

“Even if the odds are astronomical, it could happen,” Fagan said.

The “it” he was referring to was the possibility of dying from the
disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Scientists believe people can contract a form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease known as vCJD from eating beef products infected by BSE, such as diseased brain or spinal column material.

USDA spokesman Ed Loyd recommended that consumers avoid this “high risk material” but he added that “our confidence in the food supply remains very high.”

Jason Forgham also has high confidence in the US food chain at the moment. Forgham recently moved to New York City from England, where jfarmers were forced to destroy about 3.7 million cattle in the 1990s
trying to rid the food chain of BSE-infected material.

“I’ve been eating mad cow meat for seven years,” Forgham joked.

He was serious, however, about BSE changing his meat-eating ways. Forgham never eats meat close to the bone.

Forgham said he wasn’t worried about a British-style BSE outbreak happening in the US.

But Melissa Daughtry was.

“I’m kind of scared to eat meat right now,” said Daughtry, a student from Raleigh, North Carolina.

She promised that any beef touching her plate for now will have to be well done.

Scientists say simply cooking beef will not destroy proteins caused prions, believed to cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, including mad cow (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/12/26/2003084978

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Mad cow disease is thought to caused not by a virus, fungus or
bacteria, but by a prion, or infectious protein. One reason prions are so concerning is that, unlike conventional pathogens, prions are not adequately destroyed by cooking, canning, or freezing.[31,32] Usable
doses of UV or ionizing radiation, stomach acid, and digestive enzymes are all ineffective in destroying their infectivity.[33, 34] Even heat sterilization, domestic bleach[35], and formaldehyde sterilization have little or no effect.[36] One study even raised the disturbing
question of whether even incineration could guarantee inactivation of prions.[37] National Institutes of Health expert Joseph Gibbs once
remarked tongue-in-cheek to Cornell’s Food Science Department that one of the only ways to ensure one’s burger is safe is to marinate it in a concentrated alkali such as Drain-O.[38] Prions have been called the smallest,[39] most lethal self-perpetuating biological entities in the world.[40] Europe has forbidden the feeding of all slaughterhouse
waste to livestock. The United States and Canada should do the same, according to William Leiss, President of the prestigious Royal Society
of Canada.[41] The American Feed Industry Association calls such a ban a radical proposition.[42]
http://www.counterpunch.org/greger05232003.html

LISTEN ONLINE TO DR GREGER’S TALK:

And his online audio talk at http://www.veganmd.org/talks/

CLICK TO STREAM HIS AUDIO TALK ABOUT MAD COW DISEASE. THIS TALK WAS BEFORE THE PRESENT DISCOVERY.

BUT DR. MICHAEL GREGER HAS BEEN WARNING ABOUT MAD COW DISEASE (WITH ARTICLES WITH A HUGE NUMBER OF FOOTNOTES) FOR YEARS — AT LEAST SINCE THE **EARLY 1990s**

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Daily online radio show, news reporting: www.DemocracyNow.org

For more information: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace)
And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general)

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