Brisbane hospital workers feared mad cow
Suellen Hinde From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) September 11, 2010 8:15PM
BRAIN BUG WORRY: Hospital staff feared exposure to Mad Cow Disease after a patient was admitted suffering the human form CJD.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
HEALTH workers at a Brisbane hospital feared being exposed to mad cow disease after a woman was admitted with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) earlier this month. There has never been a case of ''mad cow'' (or variant CJD) in Australia and it has been ruled out in this case because the woman is not showing typical symptoms.
However, CJD - of which there are three types and all are fatal - is also a notifiable disease, and Queensland Health was only advised of the case on Thursday after The Sunday Mail contacted the private hospital to inquire about the woman's condition.
The woman, in her early 60s, has been a patient at the Holy Spirit Hospital on Brisbane's northside for more than 10 days.
A Queensland Health spokesman said that correct infection protocol would be followed.
The woman returned after only a week holidaying in France with her husband when her condition deteriorated.
Mad cow disease may have killed Aussie Aussie pies in mad cow disease risk .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. Her husband - a Brisbane solicitor - said he did not believe his wife had contracted the disease while in Europe, because she was showing signs of illness before they departed.
''All evidence is she had it before we left and started to deteriorate while overseas, so we came back,'' the distraught husband said.
CJD is a rare, degenerative disease of the brain. About 25 people die each year in Australia from the condition.
Variant CJD, which emerged in Britain in the 1990s and is known as ''mad cow'' because it has been linked to eating contaminated beef, is easily distinguishable because of its symptoms.
The husband said there had been some ''difficulty'' at the hospital with acquiring tests and information.
CJD is not contagious but some medical procedures performed on people with CJD have resulted in the disease being transmitted to other people.
Stronger federal health guidelines have been established for the use of organ transplants and for the sterilisation of surgical equipment to reduce the risk of CJD acquired through organ donation or through surgical equipment.
Suzanne Solvyns, from the CJD Support Network Group, visited the hospital last week to assist the family.
''I went to the hospital to help provide them with the correct information,'' she said. ''There is a lot of misinformation out there and medics don't know a lot about it.''
Ms Solvyns said CJD patients were often ''badly'' discriminated against.
''People assume that it is mad cow disease but there has never been a case (in Australia),'' she said.
''I did a presentation on CJD to staff - it had to be explained it was transmissible, not contagious.''
A spokeswoman from the Holy Spirit Hospital said the case was ''a private matter''. ''Be assured if any patients had the disease the hospital would take appropriate measures,'' she said.
The hospital declined to discuss the matter further.
hindes@qnp.newsltd.com.au
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/brisbane-hospital-workers-feared-mad-cow/story-e6freon6-1225918681274
REGARDLESS the source of this CJD/TSE in this case, the potential ramifications from this incident is real, and they are the same as if it was a case of nvCJD. Death from friendly fire and or the pass it forward mode of transmissions. There are many proven modes of transmission via iCJD, and all iCJD is, is sporadic CJD until route and source of the TSE agent has been established. The threat is the same. ...TSS
Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee The possible impacts and consequences for public health, trade and agriculture of the Government’s decision to relax import restrictions on beef Final report June 2010
2.65 At its hearing on 14 May 2010, the committee heard evidence from Dr Alan Fahey who has recently submitted a thesis on the clinical neuropsychiatric, epidemiological and diagnostic features of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.48 Dr Fahey told the committee of his concerns regarding the lengthy incubation period for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the inadequacy of current tests and the limited nature of our current understanding of this group of diseases.49
2.66 Dr Fahey also told the committee that in the last two years a link has been established between forms of atypical CJD and atypical BSE. Dr Fahey said that: They now believe that those atypical BSEs overseas are in fact causing sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They were not sure if it was due to mad sheep disease or a different form. If you look in the textbooks it looks like this is just arising by itself. But in my research I have a summary of a document which states that there has never been any proof that sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has arisen de novo—has arisen of itself. There is no proof of that. The recent research is that in fact it is due to atypical forms of mad cow disease which have been found across Europe, have been found in America and have been found in Asia. These atypical forms of mad cow disease typically have even longer incubation periods than the classical mad cow disease.50
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/rrat_ctte/mad_cows/report/report.pdf
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
(SEE BEEF PRODUCTS EXPORTED TO AUSTRALIA FROM USA...TSS)
AUSTRALIAN QUESTIONNAIRE TO ASSESS BSE RISK (OIE) Terrestrial Animal Health Code, 2009 and USA export risk factor for BSE to Australia
http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/07/australian-questionnaire-to-assess-bse.html
Saturday, August 14, 2010
USA NON-SPECIES CODING SYSTEM (BEEF IMPORT EXPORT BSE RISK THERE FROM)
US denies it's illegally sending beef to Australia ?
Friday, 13/08/2010
http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/08/usa-non-species-coding-system-beef.html
Saturday, June 19, 2010
U.S. DENIED UPGRADED BSE STATUS FROM OIE
http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-denied-upgraded-bse-status-from-oie.html
Sunday, August 15, 2010
ATYPICAL BSE NOW LINKED TO CAUSING SPORADIC CJD OVERSEAS Commonwealth of Australia
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/08/atypical-bse-now-linked-to-causing.html
Surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Australia: 2010 update
Genevieve M Klug, Alison Boyd, Amelia McGlade, Christiane Stehmann, Colin L Masters, Steven J Collins
Abstract
Surveillance of all human prion diseases in Australia has been the responsibility of the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR) on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing since the Registry’s inception in October 1993. The ANCJDR was established in response to the identification of 4 CJD deaths in recipients of human-derived pituitary hormone. The initial brief was to perform focused surveillance for any further iatrogenic cases of CJD; however the scope of surveillance was soon expanded to include all cases of CJD occurring in Australia both prospectively and retrospectively to 1970. The activities of the ANCJDR have evolved from: routine surveillance responsibilities to detailed epidemiological analysis at both national and international levels; expert advice in relation to, and management of, infection control issues; and the provision of a number of tests to aid the diagnosis and classification of CJD in suspect cases. In this brief report, surveillance outcomes are examined with the inclusion of figures from the reporting period of 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 and the diagnostic services offered by the ANCJDR are outlined to provide a greater insight into this aspect of the Registry. Commun Dis Intell 2010;34(2):96–101.
Keywords: Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, CJD, human-derived pituitary hormone treatment, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
snip...
The majority of Australian CJD cases have been classified as sporadic CJD (90.4%), whilst the remainder are familial (8.3%) and iatrogenic (1.3%) cases. Since the last reporting period, 20 new sporadic cases have been classified (16 definite, 4 probable) and 2 definite, familial cases. No cases of vCJD or further cases of iatrogenic cases have been identified. The inclusion of the 22 newly classified cases has not markedly altered the median illness duration or age at death of the 3 CJD aetiologies compared with previous reports. The median age at death occurs at 67 years in sporadic cases (males 66 years, females 67 years), 59 years in familial cases (males 51 years, females 62 years) and 42 years in iatrogenic cases (males 46.5 years, females 39 years). The median duration of illness is 4 months in sporadic cases (males 3 months, females 4 months), 6 months for familial cases (males 4.5 months, females 8 months) and 6.5 months for iatrogenic cases (males 2.5 months, females 9.5 months). Only 8% of all definite and probable CJD deaths occur under the age of 50 years and a third of these are attributable to iatrogenic or genetic CJD. The remaining cases have been investigated closely for the possibility of all forms of CJD including vCJD and after detailed follow-up, have been classified as sporadic cases.
Table 3: Referrals to the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry for diagnostic testing 2000 to 31 March 2010*
Year Brain tissue for immunohistochemical analysis† Brain biopsy Tonsil biopsy Autopsy tissue‡ (Total annual CJD autopsies performed in Australia) Genetic testing§ CSF testing Total
2000 1 1 8 (34) 13 187 210
2001 4 3 19 (27) 27 209 262
2002 9 15 (26) 9 226 259
2003 2 1 14 (25) 6 237 260
2004 1 16 (22) 13 268 298
2005 1 1 21 (32) 22 276 321
2006 3 2 1 29 (36) 17 260 312
2007 1 1 2 28 (39) 13 349 394
2008 3 1 19 (39) 21 332 376
2009 1 1 28 (28) 14 335 379
2010 1 1 1 2 (8) 10 89 104
Total 24 12 7 199 (317) 165 2,768 3,175
* Referrals only. Numbers do not reflect the number of tested samples for the genetic and cerebrospinal fluid testing groups.
† Includes referrals of paraffin blocks and slide sets.
‡ Includes samples referred to the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry annually.
§ Includes all referrals for PRNP testing and/or Codon 129 testing.
snip...end...TSS
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Australia: 2010 update
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/surveillance-of-creutzfeldt-jakob.html
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Emerging Infectious Diseases: CJD, BSE, SCRAPIE, CWD, PRION, TSE Evaluation to Implementation for Transfusion and Transplantation September 2010
http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/09/emerging-infectious-diseases-cjd-bse.html
Friday, August 13, 2010
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) biannual update 13 August 2010 UK Iatrogenic CJD Incidents Report
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd-biannual.html
Thursday, August 12, 2010
USA Blood products, collected from a donor who was at risk for vCJD, were distributed July-August 2010
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/usa-blood-products-collected-from-donor.html
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Ironside JW., Haemophilia. 2010 Jul;16 Suppl 5:175-80
REVIEW ARTICLE
http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/07/variant-creutzfeldtjakob-disease.html
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Nosocomial transmission of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: results from a risk-based assessment of surgical interventions Public release date: 8-Jul-2010
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/nosocomial-transmission-of-sporadic.html
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Agents: Safe Working and the Prevention of Infection: Part 4 REVISED FEB. 2010
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/03/transmissible-spongiform-encephalopathy.html
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Multiorgan Detection and Characterization of Protease-Resistant Prion Protein in a Case of Variant CJD Examined in the United States
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/01/multiorgan-detection-and.html
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Hansard Import restrictions on beef FRIDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2010 AUSTRALIA
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Proof Committee Hansard
RRA&T 2 Senate Friday, 5 February 2010
RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT
[9.03 am]
BELLINGER, Mr Brad, Chairman, Australian Beef Association
CARTER, Mr John Edward, Director, Australian Beef Association
CHAIR—Welcome. Would you like to make an opening statement?
Mr Bellinger—Thank you. The ABA stands by its submission, which we made on 14 December last year, that the decision made by the government to allow the importation of beef from BSE affected countries is politically based, not science based. During this hearing we will bring forward compelling new evidence to back up this statement. When I returned to my property after the December hearing I received a note from an American citizen. I will read a small excerpt from the mail he sent me in order to reinforce the dangers of allowing the importation of beef from BSE affected countries. I have done a number of press releases on this topic, and this fellow has obviously picked my details up from the internet. His name is Terry Singeltary and he is from Bacliff, Texas. He states, and rightfully so:
You should be worried. Please let me explain. I’ve kept up with the mad cow saga for 12 years today, on December 14th 1997, some four months post voluntary and partial mad cow feed ban in the USA, I lost my mother to the Heidenhain variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). I know this is just another phenotype of the infamous sporadic CJDs. Here in the USA, when USA sheep scrapie was transmitted to USA bovine, the agent was not UK BSE—it was a different strain. So why then would human TSE from USA cattle look like UK CJD from UK BSE? It would not. So this accentuates that the science is inconclusive still on this devastating disease. He goes on to state:
The OIE— the International Organisation of Epizootics, the arm of the WTO— is a failed global agent that in my opinion is bought off via bogus regulations for global trade and industry reps. I have done this all these years for nothing but the truth. I am a consumer, I eat meat, but I do not have to sit idly by and see the ignorance and greed of it all while countless numbers of humans and animals are being exposed to the TSE agents. All the USA is interested in is trade, nothing else matters.
Even Dr Stanley Prusiner, who incidentally won the Nobel Health Prize in 1997 for his work on the prion—he invented the word ‘prion’, or it came from him—states:
The BSC policy was set up for one purpose only, trade—the illegal trading of all strains of TSE globally throughout North America, which is home to CBSC, IBSC and HBSC, many scrapie strains and two strains of CJD to date. (please note typo error, those should have read cBSE, lBSE, and hBSE...tss)
I would also like, while I have the opportunity, to explain the beef-off-the-shelves myth. At the first Senate hearing on 14 December, it was explained that the reason why they allowed BSC beef into Australia was the beef-off-the-shelves policy, whereby if we found a case of BSC in Australia they would have to recall all—
Friday, 5 February 2010 Senate RRA&T 3
RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT
Senator HEFFERNAN—Which of course is total BS.
Mr Bellinger—Correct. This is written in the FSANZ document—Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Why isn’t this same policy in New Zealand? It is not—it is only in Australia. We are the only country in the world to have this idiotic policy. So we again call for the tabling of the WTO obligations paperwork. We do not believe that exists.
snip...see full text 110 pages ;
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12742.pdf
let's take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow.
This new prionopathy in humans? the genetic makeup is IDENTICAL to the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow, the only _documented_ mad cow in the world to date like this, ......wait, it get's better. this new prionpathy is killing young and old humans, with LONG DURATION from onset of symptoms to death, and the symptoms are very similar to nvCJD victims, OH, and the plaques are very similar in some cases too, bbbut, it's not related to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, WAIT NOW, it gets even better, the new human prionpathy that they claim is a genetic TSE, has no relation to any gene mutation in that family. daaa, ya think it could be related to that mad cow with the same genetic make-up ??? there were literally tons and tons of banned mad cow protein in Alabama in commerce, and none of it transmitted to cows, and the cows to humans there from ??? r i g h t $$$
ALABAMA MAD COW g-h-BSEalabama
In this study, we identified a novel mutation in the bovine prion protein gene (Prnp), called E211K, of a confirmed BSE positive cow from Alabama, United States of America. This mutation is identical to the E200K pathogenic mutation found in humans with a genetic form of CJD. This finding represents the first report of a confirmed case of BSE with a potential pathogenic mutation within the bovine Prnp gene. We hypothesize that the bovine Prnp E211K mutation most likely has caused BSE in "the approximately 10-year-old cow" carrying the E221K mutation.
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000156&representation=PDF
Saturday, August 14, 2010
BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and VPSPr PRIONPATHY
(see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)
http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/bse-case-associated-with-prion-protein.html
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
re-Freedom of Information Act Project Number 3625-32000-086-05, Study of Atypical BSE UPDATE July 28, 2010
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/07/re-freedom-of-information-act-project.html
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: A new sporadic disease of the prion protein
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/08/variably-protease-sensitive-prionopathy.html
Monday, August 9, 2010
Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: A new sporadic disease of the prion protein or just more PRIONBALONEY ?
http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/08/variably-protease-sensitive-prionopathy.html
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Seven main threats for the future linked to prions
http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/seven-main-threats-for-future-linked-to.html
http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/
Terry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. Box 42 Bacliff, Texas USA 77518