Posted on 08/05/2004 8:07:09 PM PDT by take
Second Human Mad Cow Blood Case Raises Concerns
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By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's second suspected case of transmission of the human form of mad cow disease through a blood transfusion could mean more people will become infected with the deadly illness, a medical expert said Friday.
Professor James Ironside, of the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, which monitors and studies the illness, said the case shows blood transfusion is an effective means of transmission and that people with different genetic makeup from previous patients are also susceptible.
"The patients we have seen so far may just be the first of a series of groups of patients. The idea that vCJD somehow is a disappearing disease -- I think we can't entertain that anymore," he said in an interview.
The government announced what was thought to be the world's first case of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) via transfusion last December after a patient died several years after receiving blood from a donor later found to have had the illness.
The second suspected case was reported last month.
But unlike all the other cases of vCJD, the elderly patient, whose case is reported in The Lancet medical journal, belonged to the largest genetic subgroup which includes over 50 percent of the population. All the other patients belonged to a smaller genetic subgroup.
"This really reinforces the fact that vCJD is a problem that still has potentially quite a long future ahead of it," Ironside explained.
LONG INCUBATION PERIOD
Variant CJD is the human equivalent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, which is linked to eating meat infected with BSE. The illnesses are caused by brain proteins that transform themselves into infectious agents.
According to the Department of Health 142 people have died from probable or definite vCJD. The incidence of the illness has been declining recently, sparking hopes it could be the beginning of the end of the problem.
But Ironside said the identification of the infectious agent in the most common genetic subgroup means it probably isn't. Continued ... It indicates quite clearly that people can be infected by this agent. They can be asymptomatic but can still carry the agent and at some point in the future may develop the disease. "In the meantime they represent a risk to others of transmitting the disease through blood transfusion ... or perhaps through contamination of surgical instruments," Ironside explained.
The second patient did not die of vCJD but an autopsy showed the infectious agent in the spleen. The patient had a blood transfusion five years earlier from a person who later developed vCJD.
Studies of other types of prior disease have shown that patients in the largest genetic subgroup have the longest incubation period, which is consistent with what scientists have found in the patient.
Until now all people with vCJD have been in the less common genetic subgroup and may have been the most susceptible and with the shortest incubation period.
"There may be an unknown number of other people in the UK who have been exposed to BSE but because of their genetic background they will have a long incubation period and therefore we can anticipate more cases in the future," Ironside said.
"We've shown that individuals in the commonest genetic subgroup are susceptible to variant CJD infection. There is no doubt about it."
Corpse came into the hospital morgue tonight to be tested for C-J. No one in security would get anywhere near the thing.
This is a scary article, given the lack of inspection by the USDA in the US. This is a good time to be a vegan!
Scary. I imagine that those religious sects, like the JWs, who wont have blood transfusions for religious reasons, must be congratulating themselves.
"The second patient did not die of vCJD but an autopsy showed the infectious agent in the spleen." If it was in the spleen, does that mean the body was attempting to dispose of it? The spleen is a nasty little organ (I mean that in the nicest way possible by the way).
Red Cross won't take my blood since I lived in Europe from 1988-94. Too bad they weren't that careful with donations from San Francisco bathhouse patrons.
Where?
Just because you don't eat meat doesn't mean that you are safe in this world.
Minneapolis.
It's not typical to test for CJ. Was there some kind of diagnosis that lead to this?
I believe that CJ was the suspected cause of death and that they sent the corpse to our hospital to have it's brain pulled and dissected. I imagine that they want to be sure it's CJ before they released the news that a local had died from having a virus eat his brain.
prion, actually.
this wasn't, by any chance, just south of Valdosta GA, was it?
Nope. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
nevermind - Minneapolis.
we have an odd case down here.
might be CJ.
Victim's mother would not allow an autopsy to determine COD
This disease just scares the hell out of me. Imagine a 10 year incubation period. I keep telling myself I'm going to buy freezer beef from a local rancher. But I haven't done it yet!
Antibiotic-resistant staph infections scare me a lot more these days.
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