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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums18 people reportedly exposed to incurable disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob) in N.C.
JAMAL ANDRESS
Eighteen people possibly exposed to a rare brain disease considered incurable and fatal and it happened while they were being treated at a North Carolina hospital.
"Their surgeries were performed with instruments that were not properly sterilized, exposing them to a degenerative neurological disorder referred to as CJD." (Via KMBC)
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD affects only one in every 1 million people worldwide and is fatal 100 percent of the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The surgeries took place at Novnt Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Via Center for Disease Control)
more
http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/health/18-people-reportedly-exposed-incurable-disease-nc/ndKrc/
Gothmog
(145,821 posts)We have not figured out how she contracted CJD
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)There are some states with deer and/or elk populations with Chronic Wasting Disease which is similar to CJD.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)It could, for example, stem from some meat she ate years ago. Who knows, though.
Gothmog
(145,821 posts)CJD can be dormant for 50 or so years and when my aunt was young she spent two years in Turkey. Right now, that is th best guess by my cousins
City Lights
(25,171 posts)Warpy
(111,429 posts)Here in the west, people who eat elk are taking a chance because wasting disease due to spongiform encephalopathy (a variant CJD) is becoming more common.
Some cases have been traced to surgical equipment and some have been traced to things like corneal transplants from people who died of the disease.
Most neurologists go through their working lives without seeing a single case. I've seen three over the years. It's horrific to watch.
However, exposed doesn't always mean infected.
If any of these patients starts to exhibit a change in personality or behavior, it's the earliest sign of the disease. In all three cases I've seen, the person has spent six months to a year misdiagnosed with various psychiatric disorders and placed on medication that didn't work beyond sedating them a bit.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)I was reading a bit about it when Britain had that horrible mad cow outbreak (was it in the 80s?) and I was horrified.
Siwsan
(26,317 posts)I know the odds are very, very, very small but it has always been in the back of my mind - especially at times when I seem to be overly clumsy.
I was told I should probably not donate blood.
hatrack
(59,602 posts)Infected.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)They don't know if these people were actually infected.
The tools were sterilized, but not well enough to be absolutely sure no prions survived. Sterilization is a multi-step process, and they didn't do all the steps properly. But each properly-done step could have killed the prions on the tools.
So they may or may not have been infected.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)But those proper techniques are not enough for "mad cow" disease. The hospital didn't do the extra steps needed for tools exposed to mad cow disease.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)a patient exposed to something is not necessarily infected.
In this case, infection is 100% fatal, eventually.
If you tell a patient that they have been infected with this, it means that it prion has definitely entered their body in a harmful manner.
Exposed means there is a chance of non-infection.
That said...they headline reads "may"
One could put may have been infected or may have been exposed.
At this time they think the likelihood of actual infection is low, so exposed is probably the correct term to use, unless you want to raise panic or create a bit of hyperbole.
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Gawd, those poor people. How the f@#$ does a hospital not sterilize instruments properly?!
Sweet Freedom
(3,995 posts)But the CDC recommends destroying them. (Which sounds like good advice to me! ) The article doesn't say why they didn't discard the instruments.
csziggy
(34,139 posts)Even many medical professionals don't wash effectively. Apparently, the word has not gotten to many of them that antibiotics are not as all powerful as they were once thought to be and people are lazy about the most basic way to avoid spreading disease.
When I was in hospital for knee replacements, I was thought to be a MERSA carrier. Even then, even with the warnings on the door, many of the medical staff did not follow the procedures. If I really had been a MERSA carrier, those staff members could have spread MERSA across the ward. Fortunately, the original test was a false positive but it was interesting to see how lax the staff was.
My mother was a RN trained before antibiotics were available. She was in charge of the infectious disease ward at Camp Pendleton when the Naval Hospital was being set up there. She knew the procedures to use to protect against the spread of diseases for which there were no treatments at the time.
We were taught as children to wash thoroughly and I have never lost that habit. I wash more thoroughly than most of the medical professionals I saw at the hospital and I wash my hands often.
I'm not surprised to hear that hospitals are overly casual about sterilization. They need to go back to pre-World War II protocols.
arthritisR_US
(7,300 posts)18 in one locale, that's some scary!
jeff47
(26,549 posts)There was 1 case, not 18. 18 were exposed after the 1 case was treated. Whether or not they were actually infected is unknown.
arthritisR_US
(7,300 posts)yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)I am not usually terrified by most illnesses. Prion diseases are the exception.
If you are infected with prions, you will die. And it will be a really miserable death.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)What makes CJD so horrifying is that there really IS no "proper" (i.e. effective) way to sterilize the tools.
The prions involved in CJD can't be killed by sterilization. Or antibacterials. Or bleach.
They can be deactivated, but they cannot be destroyed.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)by various means. They are a hardy protein so more drastic measures are needed than other proteins, but bleach and heat will completely destroy the molecule, if the bleach is strong enough and the heat is high enough.
Being a protein they are not alive so really aren't "killable", but they can be denatured and made inactive or actually destroyed.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)Which is why they need to be either discarded, or sterlized by some super methods that are not done regularly.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)The post I responded to made it seem like this was an indestructible substance, and that not even bleach could "kill" it.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)It's not good enough for "mad cow" disease.
The tools either need to be discarded, or extra sterilized.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Most reprehensible. Any medical institution that allows that to happen needs top to bottom review.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)what we consider "alive" and not alive, even more so than viruses.
How do the Creationists explain that?
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)God got distracted, and never finished?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Naaaaah.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)alive. Perhaps I'm not understanding what you mean that proteins are closer to alive that viruses.
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)That is current scientific belief.
And in any case why would a prion (a protein) be any closer to life than a virus, which often contains proteins!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Prions are, imho, even less "alive" than viruses. By "even more so" I meant that they are closer than viruses to that line between alive and not alive. And yet they display some life-esque characteristics, like the ability to replicate under certain conditions.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)and I am very sure there is so much more.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Interesting, indeed- but I don't think I'd want to get anywhere near em without a biohazard suit!
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa122703a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#Sterilization
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)When I first read this about a decade ago I was shocked to learn that prions weren't really alive as such. I was concerned because we ate primarily venison (and continue to do so).
Response to n2doc (Original post)
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uppityperson
(115,681 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,769 posts)uppityperson
(115,681 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,769 posts)Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)All it takes is one malformed protein to kick start the degenerative process.
The person who was originally operated on might have inherited it.
livetohike
(22,169 posts)blood. Every one of the sisters (5 of them) has/had Alzheimer's.
Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)The Mayo Clinic says one could get it by exposure to beef with mad cow disease:
Variant CJD is linked primarily to eating beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the medical term for mad cow disease.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease/basics/causes/con-20028005
Kali
(55,027 posts)http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/index.htm
Important Note: Classic CJD is not related to "mad cow" disease. Classic CJD also is distinct from "variant CJD", another prion disease that is related to BSE.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)WTF, really.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Can you imagine being one of those unfortunate souls? One of the biggest fuck ups I've heard of in a very long time. Just wow.
Julie