Posted on 04/18/2002 4:20:10 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
First U.S. Resident Diagnosed With Mad Cow
Officials Believe 22-Year-Old Was Infected in Britain
April 18 — What could be the first case of mad cow disease in a resident of the United States has been diagnosed in a 22-year-old British citizen living in Florida, state and federal officials said todayThe Florida Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating the likely case of a rare form of mad cow called new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.
The diagnosis of the deadly infection was made at a hospital in England and the woman has since returned to the United States, the CDC said in a statement.
A preliminary analysis of information provided by English doctors indicates the woman's condition is consistent with variant of the disease, and she is believed to have been infected overseas, the CDC said.
The only way to confirm the diagnosis is through a brain biopsy or in an autopsy.
New variant mad cow is a rare, degenerative, fatal brain disorder that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s.
The CDC said there is no evidence that the disease has ever been transmitted from person to person. It is believed to spread from eating cattle products contaminated with the agent that causes the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
No case of this disease has ever been identified in the United States by the Department of Agriculture.
Officials were expected to hold a news conference on the case later today
Oh, I don't know. It's possible to have high levels of PrP protein in meat and still see low numbers of individuals with with vCJD. One would have to have first eaten tained meat. Then one would have to absorb the PrP protein whole from the GI. Then the PrP protien would have to make it to the brain. Then, evidence suggests that human need to have a mutation on the normal brain protein in the first place in order for PrP to even be infective in humans. Add all that up, and you'll probably see the low numbers that you do.
Yes
Yes
I have not seen any reference that the cause of chronic wasting disease had even been identified yet. If you have any, I'd appreciate citations. Nor have there been any reliable reports of transmission to humans to my knowledge.
Hard to get a true picture of the extent of the problem.I tried to make sense of it last year, but in between the PETA types ranting and various governments and beef industry trying to CYA,it is hard to get a good feel on how prevelant nVCJD is or will be.
Definate diagnosis in about 200 cases in England.Possible cases elsewhere.Best advise I saw once on the now defunct madcow.com site was in about 10 years, if the number of cases in England go over 250,000, we have a major problem.Of cource by then, it will be too late to solve.If the number of cases does not reach that level,it will continue to be the rare disease it has always been.
Mostly it's anectdotal. Rev. 911 asked if it was similar to Mad Cow and CJD and it is.
There are three main theories on the nature of the agent that causes CWD: (1) the agent is a prion; (2) the agent is an unconventional virus; (3) the agent is a virino, or "incomplete" virus composed of nucleic acid protected by host proteins.
Many scientist are leading towards prion because of the similarities. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably . . .
Not transmission to humans to date, but people are still being warned to be careful.
Much interesting speculation and research published at BBC online. This article says:
"Investigators studied the genes of people with vCJD People who lack a particular version of a gene involved in immune responses may be three times more likely to suffer new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), research suggests.
"If the finding is borne out in larger studies, it could provide scientists with an important clue in their bid to develop therapies for the incurable brain disease. It may also help doctors to identify those people at risk. And it may lead to a more practical way to diagnose the condition."
More at link.
I was transfixed and horrified with your sequential analysis of the disease progress.... and then got terribly nervous and had to have another aperitif ( my wife said..."right, thats a lame excuse).....I hope the aclohol kills all the bugs as we had steak tonight.
My primary concern is the "coupling" of mad cow disease with vCJD. While both involve prions there is no evidence of linkage. Mad cow is extremely contagious among cows - vCJD appears to be genetically linked, reinforced by this article.
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