GLOBAL CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010
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From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
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Subject: GLOBAL CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010
CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010
Subject: J.P. MORGAN INVESTORS WARNED ABOUT POTENTIAL SPORADIC CJD AND BSE RELATION
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
Reply-To: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 08:33:38 -0600 Content-Type: text/plain
######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy#########
North American Equity ResearchNew York13 January 2004
BSE (Mad Cow) Update: Do Reports of sCJD Clusters Matter?
· There have been seven cases of human sCJD clusters identified in the US in the last 15 years, in which people in a specific location were diagnosed with sCJD, resulting in rates between 2.1 and 8.4 deaths per million people for that specific location compared with the national average of one in 1 million. · There is no proven link between sCJD and BSE, and hence it is considered a different disease from vCJD (which has been linked to BSE). However, the existence of clusters raises the question of “contamination" or “infection”, and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD these might have been cases of vCJD. · Clusters are not spontaneous, they normally have a source. Moreover, some cases of sCJD may have been improperly diagnosed as Alzheimer's.· We continue to believe that as long as no further cases of BSE-positive cows are found in North America and the industry has respected the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle, beef consumption in the US will not suffer. · Moreover, due to political pressure we expect key overseas markets (Japan, South Korea, and Mexico) to open up to US beef in the next six months – the recent 20% drop in cattle prices can be attributed mainly to these import bans. · However, two concerns linger and should be kept in mind by investors, 1) Has the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle been honored by the beef industry? 2) Can clusters of cases of sporadic CJD (or sCJD) really be a variant of CJD and indeed be linked to BSE? In this note we focus on the issue of sCJD clusters, and the potential impact that the growing debate on clusters could have on beef consumption in the US. United StatesFoods Pablo E. Zuanic(1-212) 622-6744pablo.zuanic@jpmorgan.comChristopher M. Bledsoe(1-212) 622-6386christopher.m.bledsoe@jpmorgan.comDaniel Ogbonna(212) 622-6382daniel.c.ogbonna@jpmorgan.com
State of Our Views Regarding BSE in the US
We continue to believe that as long as no further cases of BSE-positive cows are found in North America and the industry has respected the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle, beef consumption in the US will not suffer. Moreover, due to political pressure we expect key overseas markets (Japan, South Korea, and Mexico) to open up to US beef in the next six months – the recent 20% drop in cattle prices can be attributed mainly to these import bans.
However, two concerns linger and should be kept in mind by investors, 1) Has the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle been honored by the beef industry? The government's General Accounting Office says it has not; 2) Can clusters of cases of sporadic CJD (or sCJD as it is commonly known) really be a variant of CJD and indeed be linked to BSE (vCJD is the scientific term for the disease linked to mad cow)?
In this note we focus on the issue of sCJD clusters.
Do sCJD Clusters Matter?
The media focus (and as a result, the consumer at large) since December 23, thus far, has been on the potential of new BSE-positive cows being found, and on the various initiatives the authorities are taking to prevent an outbreak of BSE. However, the apparent existence of sCJD clusters in the US has received little publicity. If sporadic (or spontaneous) CJD is really spontaneous, it should not be found in population clusters. The fact that it indeed has been found in clusters raises concerns. Understanding the "Difference" Between sCJD and vCJD
Prior to 1996 there was only one known type of CJD, and it was called “sporadic” or “spontaneous” because it was unclear where it came from, or how it was generated. In 1996 scientists in England "discovered" a "variant" of CJD (vCJD), which they indicated could be linked to the animal form of the disease (BSE or Mad Cow). Experts kept vCJD separate from sCJD because unlike the new vCJD the original sCJD could not be directly linked to BSE. However, not enough is known to be fully certain that sporadic CJD is truly spontaneous and has no external catalyst. The other notable difference between vCJD and sCJD is the incubation period. Whereas sCJD has an average incubation period of 40 years and is exceedingly rare in young people, vCJD can affect people of all ages and has a much shorter incubation period of just two to five years. An even more relevant difference is that sCJD is found in 1 out of 1 million people per annum, or 5,000 cases per year on a global basis, while only 180 human cases of vCJD (the type of CJD linked to BSE) have ever been reported.
Existence of Clusters of sCJD May Imply They Are Really Cases of vCJD There have been seven sCJD clusters identified in the US in the last 15 years, in which people in a specific location were diagnosed with sCJD, resulting in rates between 1.2 and 8.4 deaths per million people for that specific location compared with the national average of one in 1 million. The existence of clusters raises the question of “contamination" or “infection”, and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD these might have been cases of vCJD. Clusters are not spontaneous, they normally have a source.
A cluster consists of two statistical improbabilities: 1) multiple cases occurring in a relatively limited geographic area, and 2) multiple cases occurring within the same time period. The most recent cluster was found in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The others have been found in Lehigh, Pennsylvania (1986-90), Allentown, Pennsylvania (1989-92), Tampa, Florida (1996-97), Oregon (2001-02), and Nassau County, New York (1999-2000). Given that sCJD occurs randomly in one out of one million cases, it is a statistical rarity to find an sCJD cluster – let alone six. The following tables highlight known clusters in the US. Table 1: Clustered sCJD Deaths
Local sCJD Deaths
Time Span State Local Area Pop. (MM) Period (mo.) Total Ann'lized
1986-1990 PA Lehigh Valley 0.5 48 18 4.5
1989-1992 PA Allentown 2.5 36 15 5.0
1996-1997 FL Tampa 2.2 18 13 8.7
1996-1999 TX Denton .01 38 4 1.3
1999-2000 NY Nassau County 1.3 12 7 7.0
2001-2002 OR Entire State 3.4 24 14 7.0
2000-2003* NJ Cherry Hill Area 1.7 36 12 4.0
Source: JPMorgan.
The second table, below, shows what portion of the state's total expected sCJD cases (as based on a one per million occurrence) were found in the local cluster, comparing the local cluster's portion of cases with the local area's portion of the state's total population. The greater the factor between the former and the latter suggests a higher statistical improbability that the cluster is spontaneous (sCJD).
Table 2: Clustered sCJD Deaths vs. Expected State Cases Annual Statewide Local Area (% of:)
Time Span State Local Area sCJD Deaths* exp. state cases state pop.
1986-1990 PA Lehigh Valley 11.9 37.8% 4.5%
1989-1992 PA Allentown 12.0 41.7% 20.8%
1996-1997 FL Tampa 14.1 61.5% 15.7%
1996-1999 TX Denton 20.9 6.1% .02%
1999-2000 NY Nassau County 18.1 38.7% 7.4%
2001-2002 OR Entire State 3.4 205.9% 100.0%
2000-2003* NJ Cherry Hill Area 8.0 50.0% 21.6%
* *State cases are extrapolated based on state population and the 1 per million national average. Source: JPMorgan.
The CDC Is Currently Investigating the New Jersey Cluster The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has opened an investigation into a cluster of deaths in an area surrounding Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Specifically, after dismissing the case when it was first brought to their attention earlier in 2003, the agency has since reversed course and on December 31, 2003 sought out information from Janet Skarbek. Skarbek, a Cinnaminson, New Jersey CPA believes she has uncovered a common link between seven deaths in the local area and a restaurant at the now-closed Garden State Race Track. All of the deaths had first been identified as the randomly occurring (one out of one million) cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (sCJD), and six of the deaths occurred between 2000 and 2003.
Science Expanding its Knowledge of CJDs
Have Cases of sCJD Been Overlooked?
Dr. Omar Bagasra believes that a 29 year old that died of presumably sCJD in the New Jersey cluster may have died from a new, mutated form of CJD since sCJD has a typical incubation period of 40 years and is limited to elderly patients in almost all cases. Moreover, he suspects that the link between the seven local deaths (clustered geographically and chronologically) indicates that the new form of the disease is caused by some external catalyst, unlike the randomly occurring sporadic CJD (sCJD). He adds, though, that there may actually have been other unreported CJD-related deaths in the area since the disease is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s.
Diagnoses of Alzheimer’s Might Have Been Cases of CJD
Lawrence Schonberger, the CDC epidemiologist who contacted Janet Skarbek on December 31, is quoted separately as saying that sCJD is underreported on death certificates, and that about 14 percent of cases are missed. In fact, due to similarities between sCJD and Alzheimer’s disease, a 1998 Yale study found that as many as 13 percent of Alzheimer’s deaths are actually sCJD, but conservative estimates place this number closer to 1 percent. If we extrapolate this finding to the 50,000 Alzheimer’s deaths each year in the US, the number of actual sCJD deaths per year is somewhere between 500 and 6500. But, for us this raises additional questions, since at a rate of one per million, the US should not experience much more than 300 sCJD deaths in a single year. Furthermore, Alzheimer cases have grown 50-fold in the last 25 years from 857 cases in 1979 to 50,000 cases in today (albeit part of the increase could very well be attributed to improvements in reporting).
Can sCJD Be Caused by External Agents?
A recent study out of Imperial College in London has led some to believe that the same prions that cause the BSE-related vCJD may also cause a disease that manifests itself in a way that more closely resembles sporadic CJD. John Collinge, the scientist that conducted the experiment, is basing this assertion on findings in the study’s mice, which were injected with BSE prions. As expected, some of the mice developed symptoms from vCJD, but unexpectedly, others suffered from symptoms that more closely resembled sCJD. If true, the implications are significant, as it will force scientists to consider whether cases of sporadic CJD may actually have been caused by consumption of contaminated beef.
Does All This Matter?
For now we await the results of the CDC investigation of the New Jersey cluster. Previous investigations have found clusters to be just coincidences. While this may be the case, we believe that the media may start focusing more on the issue of clusters, and that the debate could raise consumers’ concerns about beef.
But even in the worst case scenario that these clusters were indeed linked to BSE, one could still make the argument that these cases were generated before the 1997 ban on animal feed for cattle was imposed, and that hence chances of contamination since then are unlikely. Still, the question lingers, has the 1997 ban been respected? Will consumers concerns increase as the discussion of CJD clusters hits the national media? Bottom Line: If no new cases of BSE-positive cows are found and the issue of CJD clusters is disregarded by consumers, then the effect on beef consumption will be negligible. On the other hand, new cases of infected cows and/or a wider debate of CJD clusters could indeed have an effect on beef sales.
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JPMorgan Equity Research Ratings Distribution, as of December 31, 2003
Copyright 2003 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.—All rights reserved. Additional information available upon request.
snip...
Revised December 12, 2003.
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https://lists.aegee.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0401&L=BSE-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=25337&X=14C6D9515C8B05410B
THE QUESTION OF CLUSTERING OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE
RICHARD F. RAUBERTAS1, PAUL BROWN2,, FRANÇOISE CATHALA3 and IVOR BROWN4
1Division of Biostatistics, University of Rochester Rochester, NY 2Laboratoire of CNS Studies, NINCDS, NIH Bethesda, MD 3Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hópital de Ia Salpetriere Paris, France 4Engineering Division, H.R.B. Singer Co. Lanham, MD
Send reprint requests to: Dr. Paul Brown, Building 3G, Room 5B21, NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Raubertas, R. F., P. Brown (NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892), F. Cathala, and I. Brown. The question of clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Am J Epidemiol 1989;129:146–54.
Clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been reported in several countries. The authors review these reports, and they describe their statistical analysis of clustering among 329 cases that died In France during 1968–1982. Paris was found to have a much higher case rate than the rest of France, white some large areas In the north and west had remarkably few cases relative to their populations. No rural clusters were identified. A number of explanations for regional variations in case rates are possible, including population characteristics and case finding artifacts. Based on their results and those of other studies, the authors conclude that the strongest evidence for clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is familial and ethnic, rather than geographic.
Creufeldt-Jakob syndrome; space-time clustering
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/129/1/146?ijkey=50059a12d834aa143ff774d15f38881ef24a2fcd&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Subject: cjd cluster IDAHO, another 'fluke', another mad cow cjd cover up in the USA
Date: March 11, 2006 at 8:30 pm PST
In Reply to: MAD COW USA JUNK SCIENCE PR COMING OUT BEFORE RECENT SUSPECT BSE CASE EVEN CONFIRMED i.e. preparing for the storm posted
by TSS on March 11, 2006 at 7:31 pm:
Subject: another cjd cluster, another 'fluke', another mad cow cjd cover up in the USA Date: August 16, 2005 at 6:23 am PST
Brain-disease deaths investigated Idaho seeks link in 5 rare cases By Adam Tanner, Reuters August 16, 2005
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- In late May, Marjorie Skinner played golf well enough to place fourth in a Memorial Day weekend tournament. Yet within weeks, the previously vibrant retiree started losing her ability to speak.
By the time her family buried her Friday, she was the fifth suspected victim in the same sparsely populated area of Idaho of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain-wasting disease that typically afflicts only one in a million people.
As word of the latest death spread yesterday, local and federal health specialists sifted through clues about an illness different from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.
''Five [cases] in one valley is pretty serious," said Sue Skinner, Marjorie's daughter-in-law. ''It's a grave concern in our family."
The mystery has deepened in recent weeks. At the end of May, another elderly woman died of the incurable disease involving a malformed protein, or prion, that kills brain cells. After that, health officials learned of three other suspected cases, including one CJD death in February that was reported only last month.
''Is what is happening in Idaho an anomaly, a statistical fluke? That is possible," said Ermias Belay, a top CJD expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who is helping advise officials in Idaho. ''But once it exceeds 1.5 or 2 per million, you start asking questions."
''If they are all confirmed, it could be odd," he said.
In a year, the United States typically has fewer than 300 CJD cases, which mete out rapid death to the elderly, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In Twin Falls, Cheryle Becker, epidemiology manager for Idaho's South Central District Health, is going to families with detailed questionnaires aimed at finding the roots of a disease that could date back 30 years.
She asks about past travels, unusual hobbies, and dietary habits, including eating organ meats, brain, and venison.
''We're asking them if they've consumed elk," Becker said, adding that many people hunt venison in Idaho. ''We're not having many people say that they have."
Specialists said they do not expect to find a link to eating meat, although locals are asking whether there is any connection to the human variant of mad cow disease. ''It's very frightening to the community," said Cheryl Juntunen, director of the South Central District Health.
Two confirmed US cases of mad cow disease, one in a Washington state dairy animal in 2003 and the other in a Texas beef cow this year, have further heightened concern.
Health specialists have found few parallels among the women, all of European heritage. Four were Idaho natives, all had children, and none had experienced neurological disease.
One had spent time in Britain before the outbreak of mad cow disease there, officials said. Several husbands were involved in farming, as is commonplace in a rural farmland region.
''There are things that lead you to believe this is not variant CJD," Becker said.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/16/brain_disease_deaths_investigated/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+National+News
Questions linger in U.S. CJD cases
Published: Oct. 21, 2005 at 9:49 PM By STEVE MITCHELL, Senior Medical Correspondent
SNIP...
The NPDPSC did not respond to UPI's phone call requesting comment about the Idaho cases. The CDC referred UPI to Idaho officials.
Of the nine Idaho cases, three people have tested positive for a CJD-like illness, but officials are conducting further tests to determine whether the disease is sCJD. Two others tested negative and four were buried without autopsies.
The cases could just be a statistical fluke, but the state averages about 1.2 sCJD cases per year and has never had more than three in a single year. The disease is rare and generally is thought to occur at the rate of one case per million people.
Several CJD clusters in other states have far exceeded that rate, however. These included:
--southern New Jersey (2000-2003),
--Lehigh, Pa. (1986-90),
--Allentown, Pa. (1989-92),
--Tampa, Fla. (1996-97),
--Oregon (2001-02), and
--Nassau County, N.Y. (1999-2000).
Some of the clusters involved as many as 18 deaths, and ranged from a rate of four to eight cases per million people.
A group of J.P. Morgan analysts issued an advisory last year on the impact the clusters could have on the beef industry, and said that some of the cases could be due to vCJD.
"The existence of clusters raises the question of 'contamination' or 'infection,' and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD, these might have been cases of vCJD," the advisory said. "Given that sCJD occurs randomly in one out of 1 million cases, it is a statistical rarity to find an sCJD cluster -- let alone six."
If that assessment is accurate, another cluster in Idaho would be even more unlikely.
Another possibility is some of the Idaho cases could be due to chronic wasting disease, which is similar to mad cow disease and currently is epidemic among deer and elk in several states, including Idaho's neighbors Wyoming and Utah.
No human cases of CWD have ever been confirmed, but the disease has been shown to infect human cells in a lab dish. Also, a team of researchers led by Jason Bartz of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., report in the November issue of the Journal of Virology they had experimentally transmitted CWD to squirrel monkeys --the first reported transmission of CWD to primates.
If CWD is capable of infecting humans, it is unknown whether the resulting disease would resemble sCJD, vCJD or a novel disorder. If the disease looks like sCJD, cases could be going undetected or misdiagnosed.
SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2005/10/21/Questions-linger-in-US-CJD-cases/UPI-65761129945790/
RE- TAMPA FLORIDA CJD CLUSTER 1996 - 1997
HOW can one be accurate about a cluster of CJD when you cut the age limit of cjd surveillance off at 55 ?
sporadic CJD, and all strains there from, will spread via the medical and surgical arenas, no matter how old you are. so why the age limit if the goal is to stop further spreading and deaths and exposure there from, IF that is what the goal of surveillance is $$$nvCJD$$$ i.e. UKBSEnvCJD only myth, bought and paid for by your local industries responsible. ...TSS
We cooperate with our federal partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for closely investigating cases of CJD that occur in people less than 55 years of age. This age group is where experts feel nv-CJD is most likely to occur. We also take reports from medical providers and the public on clusters of disease.
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/htopics/popups/cjd.htm
The Case of the Cherry Hill Cluster
By D.T. Max Published: March 28, 2004
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/articles/The%20Case%20of%20the%20Cherry%20Hill%20Cluster.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/magazine/the-case-of-the-cherry-hill-cluster.html
results of state investigation = same old BSe
http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cjd2004.pdf
Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science, vol. 31, no. 2, 2001
Letter to the Editor:
A Cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease Patients from Nassau County, New York, USA
Debasis Adikari and Peter Farmer Department of Pathology, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York (received 13 January 2001, accepted 18 January 2001)
Keywords: Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, spongiform encephalopathy, prion, disease cluster Dear Editor
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) is a rare and transmissible neurological disorder, which has been increasing in frequency in the United States over the past two decades [1]. CJD is a spongiform encephalopathy characterized by a conformational change of prion protein [2]. The death rate for CJD in the USA is 0.9 per million [1].
We report 7 cases of CJD from North Shore University Hospital, a community-based teaching institution that serves Nassau County on Long Island, NY. These cases were diagnosed and died during the 12-mo period from mid-June 1999 to midJune 2000. The estimated population of Nassau County in 1997 was 1,281,500, according to the New York State Department of Health [3]. These data suggest a CJD death rate in Nassau County of 5.5 per million, which is approximately 6 times the national rate. During the previous 1-yr period, no case of CJD was diagnosed in our laboratory.
The diagnosis of CJD in the 7 cases was based on pathological examinations performed by at least 2 pathologists. Three cases were confirmed by brain biopsy and 4 were diagnosed at autopsy. In 1 case, CJD was not suspected during life. Pertinent data are summarized in Table 1. The patients’ clinical histories were significant for rapidly deteriorating higher cortical functions, with confusion, speech disorders, nystagmus, ataxia, and/or myoclonus. Only 1 patient had a family history of CJD.
The autopsied brains were grossly unremarkable. At microscopic examination, all specimens showed the pathological features of CJD, including spongy degeneration, loss of neurons, and gliosis in the cerebral cortex. The basal ganglia were also involved. No Kuru plaques or inflammatory changes were noted. The patients’ relatively advanced ages (median = 75 yr, range = 57 to 82 yr), the rapid couse of their disease (median = 8 wk; range = 2 to 10 wk), and the absence of Kuru plaques suggest that these cases represent classical CJD, as opposed to new variant CJD [2].
The authors are concerned that the number of CJD cases in our catchment area appears to have increased dramatically during the 12-mo period. There is no clustering of the patients in any particular neighborhood. While the causes for the apparent increase of CJD cases are unknown, enhanced alertness for the disease and early recognition of its symptoms may be possible explanations. The cluster of CJD patients ought to be investigated thoroughly, which is beyond the scope of this letter.
Address correspondence to Peter Farmer, M.D., Department of Pathology, North Shore University Hospital, 300 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030, USA; tel 516 562 3676; fax 516 562 4591. 0091-7370/01/0200/0211 $0.50; © 2001 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.
http://www.annclinlabsci.org/cgi/reprint/31/2/211.pdf
J Ky Med Assoc. 2004 Apr;102(4):163-70.
Analysis for space-time clustering of CJD cases, Kentucky, 1988-1997. Groenewold MR.
Louisville Metro Health Department, 400 East Gray Street, Louisville, KY 40201, USA.
Abstract Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of humans. It can be transmitted iatrogenically or inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. However, most cases (85%) of the disease are sporadic, occurring stochastically in approximately one person per million population. In 1996, a new, neuropathologically distinct variant of CJD was recognized in a group of unusually young patients who had apparently been infected by exposure to the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) via contaminated beef products. This prompted many countries, including the United States, to renew their surveillance for CJD to assess the possibility of other variant cases. Spatiotemporal aggregation of cases may indicate a common source of infection or some other shared risk factor. In order to assess the possibility of variant cases, death certificate data was used to examine the spatiotemporal patterns of CJD mortality in Kentucky over a ten-year period. Space-by-time clustering was assessed using Cluster 3.1 software. The findings of this study produced some evidence for a cluster of six cases in central Kentucky. Overall, however, there was little or no evidence to suggest the occurrence of variant or unconventionally acquired cases.
PMID: 15125303 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15125303
Final CJD test results in Woman died from Scjd
Wed Feb 1, 2006 09:09 71.248.143.249
Final CJD test results in Woman died from classic form of brain disease By Sandy Miller Times-News writer
TWIN FALLS -- Final test results on brain tissue have confirmed another Idaho woman died from the classic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
"Test results showed it was not the variant form of CJD," said Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, on Tuesday. The variant form of CJD is caused by eating meat from a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease.
Since January 2005, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has received nine reports of people -- seven women and two men -- diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- or CJD -- a fatal brain-wasting disease carried by prions, an abnormal form of protein in the bloodstream. Prions cause folding of normal protein in the brain, leading to brain damage. Symptoms include dementia and other neurological signs. Its victims usually die within four or five months after onset of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cases included four women from Twin Falls County, a woman from Minidoka County, a woman from Benewah County in northern Idaho, a woman from Bear Lake County in the southern corner of Idaho on the Utah border, a man from Elmore County and a man from Caribou County in southeastern Idaho.
Of the nine people in Idaho who have died, five had autopsies and their brain tissue was sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.
Of those five, three women -- two women from Twin Falls County and the woman from Benewah County -- tested positive for a prion disease, and final results on all three of them have now shown they died of classic CJD and not the variant form.
Two people, including the Elmore County man and a Twin Falls woman, tested negative for a prion disease.
Autopsies were not performed on the other four suspected CJD victims. However, a CDC neurologist has reviewed their medical records, Shanahan said.
The number of cases is highly unusual. Normally, there is one case of CJD per million people a year. Between 1984 and 2004, Idaho averaged 1.2 cases a year, Shanahan said. He said there was one year during that period when Idaho had three cases.
Because of their ages -- all of the victims except one were over the age of 60 -- health officials suspected they died of classic CJD and not the variant. However, the only way to confirm CJD is by testing brain tissue, according to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center.
Times-News writer Sandy Miller can be reached at 735-3264 or by e-mail at smiller@magicvalley.com.
Story published at magicvalley.com on Wednesday, February 01, 2006
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2006/02/01/news_localstate/news_local_state.3.txt
Is There A CJD Cluster In Roane County, Tennessee?
Posted on March 16, 2009 by Mad Cow Email
The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and saying in the meantime it is extremely unlikely that it is a human case of the disease known as 'mad cow.'
An early diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob has been made for one patient, one of 6-8 the state of Tennessee is likely to see this year.
The Centers for Disease Control identifies classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob as a degenerative disease of the nervous system, likely caused by normal prion proteins deforming into abnormal prion proteins. {The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease, more commonly known as 'mad cow' disease, is also a prion disease.}
The state's four cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob last year were all the classic disease.
One of those commenting said:
My grandmother passed away Feb 4, 2009 at home with CJD. She spent 3 weeks in ParkWest hospital before we recevied her diagnoses. And passed away ten days from the date she was diagnosed. She was 69 years old and from Roane County. Our family did have an autopsy done on her and we have recieved the first phase of it confirming she did have CJD. We have learned of a Man in Rockwood having it and a lady from Kingson in ParkWest with it now. This is a very rare disease and I do believe their has to be a link in Roane County causing it. This disease is horrible and devasting to the family. There is no treatment for it and it progesses very rapid. There is no stopping it or slowing it down once the patient gets it. My mother has contacted the CDC this morning.
And another:
Actually, my father in Roane County was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob last week. Our family was contacted by a lady whose mother passed away earlier this year of the same disease, also in Roane County. Furthermore, a family friend visited our house today and told us of yet another diagnosis of a citizen of Roane County, who is currently hospitalized in Knox County. This is devastating both for the families involved and for our county, and considering the statistical rarity of the disease, it seems very strange that three people residing within the same geographical area were diagnosed if the disease is, in fact, acting sporadically. This disease is a monster, and further investigation to identify a possible common link would be extremely beneficial.
Roane County is on I-40 in eastern Tennessee. Its farms and several small towns are home to about 52,000. Go here for the WBIR report.
http://www.madcowblog.com/2009/03/articles/mad-cow-updates/is-there-a-cjd-cluster-in-roane-county-tennessee/
NEWS
Scientists Try To Track Fatal Disease
International Expert Visits Area To Study Unusual Incidence Rate
by ANN WLAZELEK, The Morning Call September 27, 1990
The Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania may not have an official "cluster" of the rare and fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but an international authority believes the cases are worth studying regardless. Dr. Paul Brown, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health who studied CJD the past 15 years, came to Allentown yesterday because local doctors reported at least 13 cases -- three to six times the normal incidence -- since 1985. That appeared to be an excess, according to Brown, yet whether they are statistically significant or not depends on the denominators of time, space and other factors.
http://articles.mcall.com/1990-09-27/news/2751251_1_brain-disease-cjd-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease
NEWS
Human form of mad cow killed at least 18
By Ann Wlazelek Of The Morning Call January 18, 2004
Government officials say there is only one case of the human form of mad cow disease in the United States -- a young woman living in Florida who probably became infected by eating contaminated beef in Britain, where she lived for the first 12 years of her life. But, 13 years ago, medical specialists in the Lehigh Valley reported a rare cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or the human form of mad cow, that killed as many as 18 residents of Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe and Schuylkill counties between 1986 and 1990.
http://articles.mcall.com/2004-01-18/news/3527827_1_variant-cjd-cow-disease-form-of-mad-cow
CJD NE TEXAS CLUSTER
Julie Rawlings of the Texas Department of Health's main office in Austin said CJD was given "reportable" disease status by her agency in 1998, following "a cluster of CJD in northeast Texas" in 1997.
In '97, Rawlings said there were seven confirmed cases of CJD in her agency's Region IV, which extends to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, while being connected by Paris, Palestine and Carthage.
"We never found anything," Rawlings said about the concentration of cases in northeast Texas. "We asked enough questions to fill a 70-page questionnaire ... You name it, we probably asked it. Again, we didn't come up with anything significant."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/palestine41201.cfm
Singeltary family experience with CJD Listserve 22 May 98 Hello, my name is Terry S. Singeltary Sr. and on 12-14-97 my mother died of heidenhan variant CJD, she died a very hidious death. Next, on 12-14-96 exactly one year earlier,my neighbors' mother died from C.J.D. Ii have autopsies to confirm both cases.not to long after my mother had passed away,my neighbor called me and said that I needed to see something. He had been going through a box that he had come across of his mothers. Inside was a bottle of nutritional supplements called IPLEX; INGREDIANTS;VACUUM DRIED BOVINE BRAIN,BONE MEAL,BOVINE EYE,VEAL BONE,BOVINE LIVER POWDER,BOVINE ADRENAL,VACUUM DRIED BOVINE KIDNEY,AND VACUUM DRIED PORCINE STOMACH, it's a cow in a pill. Now this woman taking these pills,died of C.J.D.there was a big article in the Galveston Daily News about all of this. I called the Texas Dept. Of Health and they came and got the pills the next day. Julie Rawlings at the texas dept. of health told me last week that the manufacturer has clammed up on them and will not cooperate anymore. They are referring all matters to their lawyers now.how can this be? Why doesn't the federal government intervEne?
Since the story came out in the galv. news on april 27,1998.a girl called me and told me of her father dying in late 94 or early 95 of C.J.D. in galveston. She told me that my mothers doctor was also her fathers doctor.now my mothers doctor would always mention the OTHER CASE but that's as far as it went.NOW i know why,her father was a BUTCHER AT A MEAT MARKET IN GALVESTON UNTIL HE RETIRED.
Makes me wonder? Did mom ever eat any beef that had come from that meat market in the last 30 or 40 years? MADCOW is here and you can call it whatever you want to. I saw it, my mother died from it. At times she would jerk so bad it would take 3 of us to hold her down.10 weeks start to finish,and she was gone.this disease that they claim is a different disease in younger folks (nvcjd) is the same damn thing. Just because it last longer and the plaques are a little more extreme,could it not be just a more extreme case of C.J.D. any young person with any disease will last longer than a older person with the same disease, because their body and organs are much younger and healthier.
The manufacturer of IPLEX is Standard Process Inc., Palmyra, Wisconsin.1-800-558-8740. I hope you find some interest in this.if you need more details,please don't hesitate to contact me."
With thanks,
Terry S. Singeltary
Texas cluster web site 21 May 98 Mark V. Gregg 512-458-7677 fax 512-458-7616 Director, Public Health Professional Education Texas Department of Health 1100 West 49th Street T-803 Austin, Texas 78756
"We've developed a CJD Web page here at the Texas Department of Health. In addition to some general information, the page links to the CDC's CJD page as well as a 1996 issue of our biweekly morbidity and mortality newsletter, the Disease Prevention News, which is also available on the Web. Our Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance (IDEAS) Division is currently investigating what we believe to be a cluster of CJD in a small area in East Texas. The Division's number is on the Web page if you wanted to follow up with specifics."
http://www.mad-cow.org/mid_may98.html#aaa
http://www.fortunecity.com/healthclub/cpr/798/terry.htm
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Northeast Texas,
J.A. Rawlings,*1 K.A. Hendricks1, O.M. Nuno1, D.A. Brown1, D.A. Evans2, Texas Department of Health, 1Austin and 2Tyler, Texas
Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by prions composed of proteinaceous material devoid of nucleic acid. CJD occurs sporadically (generally 1 case/1,000,000 population per year) in older patients (average age of 65) and is characterized by rapidly progressive dementia, accompanied by severe muscle spasms and incoordination. Death usually occurs within 3 to 12 months (average 7 months). CJD activity in Texas, which has a population of nearly 19 million, appeared to be typical. The statewide death rate for 1995 and 1996 was just under 1/1,000,000. In April of 1997, the Texas Department of Health became aware of an increased number of possible CJD cases in a 23-county area of NE Texas with a population of just over one million. After review of medical and pathology records, four patients were identified with definite classic CJD and three were identified with probable CJD. Dates of death for the eight patients were from April, 1996 through mid-July 1997. The patients were from 46 through 65 years of age; four were male and three were female. A case-control study to identify risks for CJD in NE Texas has been initiated.
http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/tse/Rawlings.htm
North American Equity Research
New York
13 January 2004
BSE (Mad Cow) Update:
Do Reports of sCJD Clusters Matter?
SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2007/12/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-surveillance.html
Friday, October 23, 2009
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Texas Data for Reporting Years 2000-2008
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2009/10/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-surveillance.html
POTENTIAL CJD CLUSTER IN 3 MANITOBANS, another coincidence of more spontaneous BSe
Date: December 8, 2006 at 7:29 am PST Curler among 3 Manitobans suspected of having CJD Last Updated: Friday, December 8, 2006 9:05 AM ET
CBC News Three Manitobans — including a prominent men's curler — are suspected of having the brain-wasting disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
Doctors from the Brandon Regional Health Authority have referred three suspected cases of CJD for further testing. They include Neil Andrews, 58, a two-time senior provincial curling champion from Brandon.
Dr. Charles Penner said he doesn't believe the cases are linked, but added that a cluster of cases is even rarer than CJD itself.
As of Nov. 1, six cases of CJD have been reported in Canada this year, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. Since 1997, 720 cases of the degenerative and fatal disease have been referred to the agency.
Andrews was diagnosed with a suspected case of CJD in September, after he had trouble keeping his balance while curling. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., later told him he likely had CJD.
Earlier this week, a hospital in London, Ont., suspended surgeries for two days when one neurosurgery patient was suspected of having CJD. Preliminary test results came back negative on Tuesday.
About 30 cases of "classical" CJD are diagnosed in Canada every year.
It's the more common, sporadic of two types of CJD, which occurs spontaneously, sometimes because the disease is hereditary. Less than one per cent of the time, it is contracted through hospital or medical procedures.
The second type, variant CJD, is associated with mad-cow disease.
With files from the Canadian Press
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2006/12/08/mba-cjd.html
Human version of mad cow hits Manitoba Three cases suspected from same area in province
The Canadian Press Published: Friday, December 08, 2006 BRANDON, Man. - Three people in Manitoba, including prominent provincial curler Neil Andrews, are suspected of being infected with a degenerative and fatal brain disease, health officials confirmed Thursday.
Doctors from the Brandon Health Region said they have referred three suspected cases of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, or CJD, for further testing.
CJD infects about one person in every million.
The facts on CJD Q&A about mad cow and CJD Mad cow protein may play role in diabetes More Body & Health news
Dr. Charles Penner, vice-president of medical services for the Brandon Regional Health Authority, doesn't believe the cases are linked, although a cluster of cases is even rarer than the disease.
"For the province to have three cases in one corner of the province, I suppose that would be unusual," he said.
Andrews, a two-time senior provincial men's curling champion, was actually diagnosed with a suspected case of CJD in September. Andrews, 58, noticed something was wrong when he had trouble keeping his balance during his curling delivery.
After a weeklong stay at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., doctors told him he likely had CJD.
"(The curlers) knew I couldn't curl and some of them thought that before," he said, laughing, while at a curling club in Brandon in October. "And almost every guy took the time and stopped and talked to me and talked to me openly about the disease and that was good.
"They tried to understand. I'm one of the unfortunate ones who's going to die but they considered themselves lucky."
Typically, one in three suspected cases turns out to be classical CJD, which can lead to rapid brain deterioration, dementia and mobility trouble.
Unlike variant CJD, which has been linked to beef contaminated by mad cow disease, classical CJD cases most often appear sporadically and affect people between 45 and 75. A total of 14 confirmed cases has been reported in Manitoba in the last decade.
Doctors use MRI scans and spinal taps to test for the presence of an abnormal protein to help diagnose a suspected case. But physicians can't confirm anything until an autopsy on brain tissue is performed.
Most people infected with CJD die within a year of the onset of symptoms.
Dr. Michael Coulthard, director of host genetics and prion disease at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, said the results of the suspected case are still pending. He said there has only been one cluster of cases reported worldwide -- in Switzerland -- in the last five years.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=5ef5f015-0f75-45f1-aac7-c9dd939eb85a&k=66922
CJD Transmission in Canada
There is documentation of six cases in Ontario (five deaths and one diagnosed case) recorded between April 1989 and October 1990.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/96vol22/dr2208ea-eng.php
STATEMENT ON A VARIANT CJD FAMILY CLUSTER
Prof Robert G Will,NCJDSU 25th September 2008r.g.will@ed.a c.uk
Three cases of pathologically confirmed variant CJD have been identified in Spain in recent years, including a man in his early 40s who died earlier this year. The clinical illness in this individual was typical of variant CJD, including the appearances on the MRI brain scan.
A few months ago his mother, who was in her 60s, developed a rapidly progressive neurological illness and died about 5 months from the onset of this illness. An MRI brain scan showed appearances suggestive of variant CJD and preliminary results from post-mortem examination suggest that the suspected diagnosis of variant CJD is correct. Further results, which may confirm this diagnosis, should be available within a few days.
Since 1994 there have been 167 cases of variant CJD in the UK, 23 cases in France and 15 cases in other countries, excluding Spain. The occurrence of variant CJD in more than one member of the same family has not been seen before and it has been the general view that family members of variant CJD cases are not themselves at greater risk of developing this condition. This raises the question as to why two cases of variant CJD have now been found in a family in Spain. There is no evidence of a genetic form of CJD in these Spanish cases and preliminary investigation has not shown any risk of CJD through medical or surgical treatment.
There is no evidence of any risk of transmission of CJD through direct personal contact. The mother and son lived in an area of Spain in which BSE has been found and it is possible that direct consumption of material with high levels of BSE infection may have been the source of the infection. In the UK and other countries it is believed that processed bovine tissues were the most likely source of BSE infection and it is possible that different forms of exposure to BSE infection may explain the occurrence of variant CJD in two family members in Spain and not elsewhere.
This, however, is uncertain and public health policies in relation to variant CJD may have to be reviewed in the light of these two cases in Spain.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6224550/Memorandum-on-a-Variant-CJD-Family-Cluster
Brain Advance Access originally published online on November 28, 2008 Brain 2009 132(2):493-501; doi:10.1093/brain/awn303
The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Enhanced geographically restricted surveillance simulates sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cluster
Genevieve M. Klug1,5,*, Handan Wand2,*, Alison Boyd1,5, Matthew Law2, Scott Whyte3,4, John Kaldor2, Colin L. Masters1,5 and Steven Collins1,5
1 Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 2 National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 3 North Sydney and Central Coast Area Health, New South Wales, Australia 4 The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 5 The Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence to: Steven J. Collins, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia E-mail: stevenjc@unimelb.edu.au
snip...
Although our strongest suspicion is that the managing clinicians in the Cluster 1 area were well-primed to investigate and confirm CJD cases, it remains possible that other factors unrelated to enhanced surveillance may have contributed to, or explain, the increased number of sCJD in the region. It is conceivable that the cluster could have occurred by chance alone, as apparent clusters are inherent in randomness. This has been seen previously in Australia (Collins et al., 2002a) and with variant CJD in the United Kingdom (Cousens et al., 1999). In Australia, a cluster of six cases in a rural city was identified between 1988 and 2000 and was concluded to have been a chance occurrence. Since this time, no further cases have been confirmed in the area (personal communication, S. Collins) which supports the initial conclusion. In this study, our analysis of case records did not support a definite or likely instance of causal transmission linkage between any cases; however, it cannot be completely dismissed that the Registry's case record details may be incomplete or influenced by recall error from those completing case questionnaires. This leaves the possibility that some of the excess cases may have arisen through covert transmission events. A further limitation of the cluster cohort is the low proportion of cases with complete PRNP genetic analysis, thereby limiting our ability to rule out the possibility of an underlying genetic aetiology in some cases. Finally, a comparison of the age groups of NSW and the Cluster 1 area revealed a small but significant difference between the age structures of the areas with a trend towards an older age population in Cluster 1. Since the disease is age-dependent, it could be speculated that the higher rate simply reflected the older age population. We are confident this is not the explanation given that age-adjustment did not alter the finding that there were significantly more cases of sCJD than expected in Cluster 1.
In conclusion, we believe that vigilant and motivated managing clinicians in a geographically circumscribed area of NSW evinced a sustained higher level of clinical awareness for the broad phenotypic spectrum of CJD with reliable referral of suspect cases for further investigation. In addition, these physicians established and maintained a well coordinated and active approach to suspect CJD autopsy. The combination of these factors translated into a higher intensity of surveillance at approximately twice the rate per population observed for the entire state, culminating in twice the incidence of sCJD at around 2.28 cases/million population/year. The hypothesis that intensity of surveillance for rare disorders such as sCJD can be quantified and correlates positively with disease incidence deserves further exploration and may prove to be an important insight into the varying incidence rates over periods of time within individual nations and between different countries, particularly in light of declining variant and iatrogenic CJD case numbers and a potential waning of awareness of CJD in the years to come. This type of improved understanding could provide strategies to maintain optimal national and potentially global surveillance.
snip....
full text ;
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/132/2/493
Ann Neurol. 2002 Jul;52(1):115-8.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cluster in an Australian rural city. Collins S, Boyd A, Fletcher A, Kaldor J, Hill A, Farish S, McLean C, Ansari Z, Smith M, Masters CL.
Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry and Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. stevencj@unimelb.edu.au
Abstract Through the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, 6 pathologically confirmed sporadic cases were recognized over a 13-year period in persons who had been long-term residents of a moderate-sized rural city, whereas the expected number was 0.923. An extensive investigation could not find any point-source or case-to-case transmission links. This occurrence is highly statistically significant (p = 0.0027) when viewed in isolation and remains significant (p < p =" 0.001)." view="long&pmid=" risk =" 2.28," p =" 0.021)." aktion="ShowPDF&ArtikelNr=" ausgabe="237323&ProduktNr=" filename="000126916.pdf">doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)74351-8Cite or Link Using DOI Cluster of vCJD cases in Kent and its importance Original TextR Salmon a, CEM Hillier a Sir S N Cousens and colleagues1 conclude that “the reported cluster of variant CJD cases in Kent is most probably a chance finding”. This conclusion is made on the basis that, despite a statistical excess of cases based on the assumption of a Poisson distribution, when the UK population is divided up into 36 equal groups of 1·5 million persons (the population of Kent), and 26 cases of variant CJD are allocated randomly to one of these 36 groups, over 10 000 computer simulations, four or more cases occurred within the same group in 18% of simulations. This methodology is a little like a roulette player who, having backed a given square to come up four or more times, expects to be paid if any single square comes up four or more times.
The justification would be that there is nothing special about this area (Kent), compared with any other. However, the initial epidemiological description of BSE gives the reported incidence as greater in southern England and greatest in Kent, leading Wilesmith and colleagues2 to suggest, as an explanation, “geographical variation in the market share of cattle feedstuffs between the compounders” and “a variation between companies in the use and inclusion rate of meat and bone meal”. Further, it was in Kent that some of the early cases of BSE among captive exotic ungulates occurred. Although Cousens and co-workers' conclusion that waterborne spread of infection is improbable is reasonable, it may be premature to rule out other factors that may have operated at a local level such as, for example, a locally distributed foodstuff. Only a local field investigation can elucidate this possibility. Furthermore, this needs to be an investigation tailored to the hypothesis under consideration at a local level, rather than, as seems to have been done, merely abstracting information from the national case control study of CJD. To expect a local consultant in communicable disease control to have the time or resources to undertake such a study may well be unrealistic. However, it would be an appropriate task for a national centre, such as the CJD Surveillance Unit, since any positive findings would have national implications and a negative investigation would offer some direct reassurance and complement the approach that Cousens and colleagues take.
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)74351-8/fulltext?version=printerFriendly
I helped Jonathan Leaky of the Sunday London Times track down part of that Queniborough cluster source. ...TSS
Mad cow disease: Could it be here?
Man's stubborn crusade attracts experts notice
August 5, 2001T
he Houston Chronicle by Carol Christian
snip...
Science and environment writer Jonathan Leake of the Sunday Times in London said Singeltary has helped him track down families of people with CJD along with academic research papers.
"I strongly suspect he is right in thinking the USA has had BSE cases," Leake said by e-mail.
"The American government is making the same mistake as the British in putting the short-term commercial interests of its farmers before health considerations," he added.
"It should start formal and widespread testing of cattle plus compulsory autopsies for all human CJD victims at the state's expense. If there is BSE, then leaving it to spread will kill people -- and that would eventually destroy the industry, too."
snip...SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/crusade8501.cfm
Knacker's yard link to Queniborough nvCJD cluster
Sun, 13 Aug 2000 Jonathan Leake and Dipesh Gadher
Sunday Times Additional reporting: Graham Hind
BRITAIN'S worst outbreak of the human form of mad-cow disease may be linked to a nearby knacker's yard that sold meat from diseased animals. The yard operated just eight miles from Queniborough, the Leicestershire village where health officials are investigating the first known cluster of CJD cases.
Three people who spent time in the village died from CJD in 1998, and a fourth person is suspected of having the degenerative brain disease. Another victim lived just three miles away.
The possible link to the knacker's yard - which recycled animals unfit for human consumption into pet food and other products - dates back 20 years, to about the time when scientists now believe the BSE epidemic may have begun.
Two meat traders from Bedfordshire were convicted in 1982 of buying unapproved beef from W E Mason & Sons of Wigston, near Leicester, and selling it to an unsuspecting butcher in Hertfordshire.
Last week officials seized council documents and court reports relating to the company to determine whether any unfit meat may have entered the human food chain locally.
"We have had a very useful series of conversations about this with Oadby and Wigston council," said Philip Monk, a consultant in communicable disease control at Leicestershire health authority, who is heading the Queniborough investigation. "I am ruling nothing in and nothing out. Anything we have that is potentially helpful in explaining local meat trading practices has to be examined."
The case heard by Leicester magistrates in 1982 was the culmination of Operation Meat Hook, a joint investigation between detectives and environmental health officers from three counties.
The teams covertly observed Peter Fletcher, a partner in a wholesale butcher's business near Dunstable, on four occasions in 1980 when he visited Leonard Mason, the yard's owner. He loaded beef carcasses from the yard into an un-marked van, which had been contaminated by a cow's head "fouled by stomach contents", according to evidence given in court. One of the carcasses was later found to have been infected with pleurisy.
Fletcher marked the meat with a fake inspector's stamp, and then left it with a retail butcher near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
"A knacker's yard may, and frequently will, deal with diseased cattle," the prosecutor had told an earlier hearing. "Meat may be partly decomposed and contaminated. Disease is rife in such premises and could include anthrax and tuberculosis."
Fletcher was jailed for three months and fined ?500. His partner, Francis Fensome, received a suspended prison sentence. Mason was cleared after telling the court that he had been told the meat was to be used to feed animals at Whipsnade zoo [site of two cheetah BSE fatalities -- webmaster]
The knacker's yard, which had been run by the Mason family since 1947, was closed the same year and now stands derelict. Mason has since died.
Last week his brother, Jack Mason, said: "I am confident there is no connection with us and the outbreak in Queniborough. Most of the meat went to zoos. Any meat that was sold locally went to dog owners as pet food."
There is no proof that Mason dealt in cattle infected with BSE, which was not recognised at the time. But such yards commonly dealt in "downer" cows - those displaying symptoms of illness - so any animals that did have BSE were likely to have ended up in such places.
The Queniborough inquiry team is also examining slaughtering techniques at Leicestershire abattoirs and childhood eating habits of those who grew up in the village, although school meals have been ruled out as a possible cause of the CJD outbreak.
Arthur Beyless lost his daughter, Pamela, 24, a bank worker, to the disease after a two-year struggle for survival. Although the Beylesses live in nearby Glenfield, Pamela regularly visited her grandparents in Queniborough and the family often bought meat from Ian Bramley, the village butcher, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beyless said: "On one occasion I was buying some meat when Ian told me he'd got it for 'a good deal'. It does make you wonder when you consider this theory about the knacker's yard. This disease is something that might never have happened if people weren't always grasping for that last penny."
The other two named victims with links to Queniborough are Stacey Robinson, 19, who lived there for 12 years before moving to another part of the county, and Glen Day, 34, who worked on a farm in the area. He regularly ate at the Horse and Groom pub, which was supplied with meat by Bramley.
Bramley died in a car crash. His stepmother, Hazel Bramley, said she knew nothing about Mason's yard. "We bought our meat directly from local farmers," she said. "The animals were slaughtered in Leicester and delivered to us. I don't know anything about this place in Wigston."
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/aug00_late_news.html#aaa
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/jul00_dont_eat_sheep.html#hhh
18 Jun 00 - CJD - Risk of CJD is higher in north Jonathan Leake
Sunday Times ... Sunday 18 June 2000
Northerners could be at several times more risk from variant CJD , the human form of "mad cow" disease, than those living in the Midlands and south, a study by government scientists has found, writes.
The research, carried out by the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Surveillance Unit, also shows that the rate of incidence of the disease, which is always fatal, is rising across Britain .
The figures remain too low to estimate accurately how many people will ultimately be affected. Estimates range from hundreds to many thousands .
Variations in the incidence of the disease are a matter of deep concern . In the north of England - north of Manchester and including Yorkshire and Humberside - there were 3.14 cases per million people over the five years to 1999. Scotland had the second highest rate at 2.98 cases per million .
The West Midlands emerged as the safest place with just 0.36 cases per million. East Anglia and the south experienced, respectively, 0.93 and 1.37 cases per
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news8.html
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news8.html
#18 Jun 00 - CJD - Risk of CJD is higher in north
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news9.html
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/jul00_late_news.html#aaa
Knacker's yard link to Queniborough nvCJD cluster
Sun, 13 Aug 2000 Jonathan Leake and Dipesh Gadher Sunday Times Additional reporting: Graham Hind
BRITAIN'S worst outbreak of the human form of mad-cow disease may be linked to a nearby knacker's yard that sold meat from diseased animals. The yard operated just eight miles from Queniborough, the Leicestershire village where health officials are investigating the first known cluster of CJD cases. Three people who spent time in the village died from CJD in 1998, and a fourth person is suspected of having the degenerative brain disease. Another victim lived just three miles away.
The possible link to the knacker's yard - which recycled animals unfit for human consumption into pet food and other products - dates back 20 years, to about the time when scientists now believe the BSE epidemic may have begun.
Two meat traders from Bedfordshire were convicted in 1982 of buying unapproved beef from W E Mason & Sons of Wigston, near Leicester, and selling it to an unsuspecting butcher in Hertfordshire.
Last week officials seized council documents and court reports relating to the company to determine whether any unfit meat may have entered the human food chain locally.
"We have had a very useful series of conversations about this with Oadby and Wigston council," said Philip Monk, a consultant in communicable disease control at Leicestershire health authority, who is heading the Queniborough investigation. "I am ruling nothing in and nothing out. Anything we have that is potentially helpful in explaining local meat trading practices has to be examined."
The case heard by Leicester magistrates in 1982 was the culmination of Operation Meat Hook, a joint investigation between detectives and environmental health officers from three counties.
The teams covertly observed Peter Fletcher, a partner in a wholesale butcher's business near Dunstable, on four occasions in 1980 when he visited Leonard Mason, the yard's owner. He loaded beef carcasses from the yard into an un-marked van, which had been contaminated by a cow's head "fouled by stomach contents", according to evidence given in court. One of the carcasses was later found to have been infected with pleurisy.
Fletcher marked the meat with a fake inspector's stamp, and then left it with a retail butcher near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
"A knacker's yard may, and frequently will, deal with diseased cattle," the prosecutor had told an earlier hearing. "Meat may be partly decomposed and contaminated. Disease is rife in such premises and could include anthrax and tuberculosis."
Fletcher was jailed for three months and fined ?500. His partner, Francis Fensome, received a suspended prison sentence. Mason was cleared after telling the court that he had been told the meat was to be used to feed animals at Whipsnade zoo [site of two cheetah BSE fatalities -- webmaster]
The knacker's yard, which had been run by the Mason family since 1947, was closed the same year and now stands derelict. Mason has since died.
Last week his brother, Jack Mason, said: "I am confident there is no connection with us and the outbreak in Queniborough. Most of the meat went to zoos. Any meat that was sold locally went to dog owners as pet food."
There is no proof that Mason dealt in cattle infected with BSE, which was not recognised at the time. But such yards commonly dealt in "downer" cows - those displaying symptoms of illness - so any animals that did have BSE were likely to have ended up in such places.
The Queniborough inquiry team is also examining slaughtering techniques at Leicestershire abattoirs and childhood eating habits of those who grew up in the village, although school meals have been ruled out as a possible cause of the CJD outbreak.
Arthur Beyless lost his daughter, Pamela, 24, a bank worker, to the disease after a two-year struggle for survival. Although the Beylesses live in nearby Glenfield, Pamela regularly visited her grandparents in Queniborough and the family often bought meat from Ian Bramley, the village butcher, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beyless said: "On one occasion I was buying some meat when Ian told me he'd got it for 'a good deal'. It does make you wonder when you consider this theory about the knacker's yard. This disease is something that might never have happened if people weren't always grasping for that last penny."
The other two named victims with links to Queniborough are Stacey Robinson, 19, who lived there for 12 years before moving to another part of the county, and Glen Day, 34, who worked on a farm in the area. He regularly ate at the Horse and Groom pub, which was supplied with meat by Bramley.
Bramley died in a car crash. His stepmother, Hazel Bramley, said she knew nothing about Mason's yard. "We bought our meat directly from local farmers," she said. "The animals were slaughtered in Leicester and delivered to us. I don't know anything about this place in Wigston."
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy: Epidemiological studies
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/aug00_late_news.html#aaa
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/21/uk.cjd/
The Queniborough CJD cluster
New claims link CJD to water supply
http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/drink.html#water
http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/drink.html
2009 UPDATE WATER AND PRIONS
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/10/detection-of-protease-resistant-cervid.html
Eurosurveillance, Volume 5, Issue 12, 22 March 2001 Articles
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Citation style for this article: Report on Leicestershire vCJD cluster published. Euro Surveill. 2001;5(12):pii=1785. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1785 Date of submission: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Report on Leicestershire vCJD cluster published
The inquiry team at Leicestershire Health Authority has reported on the results of the investigation into the geographical cluster of five cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD) around the village of Queniborough. The investigators have concluded that the purchase and consumption of beef in the early 1980’s from butcher’s shops where the meat could have been contaminated with brain tissue from cattle affected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) provides a plausible explanation for the cluster (1). A case control study, in which relatives of the five cases and relatives of 30 age-matched controls were interviewed, found that cases were 15 times more likely than controls to have purchased and consumed beef from a butcher who removed brains from cattle (p = 0.0058, 95% C.I. for odds ratio 1.6 – 140). The two butchers linked to four of the five cases removed the brains from cattle that were slaughtered either by the butchers themselves or in a nearby small abattoir. Pithing rods were used during slaughtering, and the carcasses were cleaned by wiping rather than by hosing. Removal of the brain was difficult and messy and the meninges were often ruptured either at removal or by the pithing rod. This led to a risk of cross contamination of carcass meat with brain tissue. Reasons are also given as to why during the early 1980’s the cattle in mixed dairy-beef herds used for the local meat trade may have had higher levels of BSE agent at slaughter than cattle raised for beef alone.
The practice of removing and selling the brains of cattle as food was legal in the United Kingdom throughout the 1980’s. Since 1989 it has been illegal for cattle brains to be used for human consumption and since 1996 the whole head of cattle over six months must be disposed of in a slaughterhouse as specified risk material.
The current number of definite and probable cases of vCJD in the UK is 97 (2). Of these, seven are probable cases who are still alive. Although there are other geographical areas with more than one case, to date Queniborough is the only area where statistical analysis suggests the association between the cases is unlikely to have occurred by chance.
References : Bryant G, Monk P. Summary of the final report of the investigation into the North Leicestershire cluster of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Leicester: Leicestershire NHS Health Authority, 2001. Available online at. Queniborough vCJD cluster report - Department of Health statement [press release 2001/0141]. London: Department of Health, 21 March 2001. Available online at
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1785
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/pn171.pdf
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1724
Tue, 8, Aug 2000 19:39:27 -0400
From: jonathan leake
Date: Tue, 8, Aug 2000 19:39:27 -0400
Subject: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY ......)
Sender: jonathan leake
To: BSE Terry Singletary
Message-ID: <200008081939_mc2-af13-1bc@compuserve.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by sys44.hou.wt.net id SAA15659 X-Mozilla-Status: 8007 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-UIDL: ed0acd360d74370a3e06000000000000
Hi Terry - this is Jonathan Leake here.
we're thinking of doing a story on the knackers yard meat issue - is there a link to Queniborough? Would you mind resending any info you have on this - I may have lost some of the stuff you sent.
Cd you send it to
jonathan.leake@suandy-times.co.uk
AND TO
dipesh.gadher@sunday-times.co.uk
- HE'S RESEARCHING THIS STORY FOR ME AS I'M AT A CONFERENCE
MANY THANKS FOR YOUR HELP - AND FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK YOU'VE BEEN DOING
snip...end...TSS
Re: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY )
Subject: Re: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY )
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 21:41:57 -0700
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: jonathan leake
Hello Jonathan,
yes, give me some time though. there is a shitstorm on CJD Voice, they let the Faillace's on the CJD Voice support group (TSE tainted sheep farmers) without telling anyone; and myself and other are pissed off to say the least. This was suppose to be a support group. i told them it would be like asking the Malboro Man on a Cancer List. But he is Dead. Maybe it struck a nerve.
Have you got the DFA 4, 5, and 7, i thought i read something about knackers or maybe babyfoods??? not sure. i can send to you. I am sure i have something in the GBR's for the states and the other countries, don't have time to read. you can read them at; http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/ssc/outcomeen.html#reports i will search as soon as i get time ....
kind regards, Terry
jonathan leake wrote:
Hi Terry - this is Jonathan Leake here. we're thinking of doing a story on the knackers yard meat issue - is there a link to Queniborough? Would you mind resending any info you have on this - I may have lost some of the stuff you sent. ...snip...END...TSS
Re: KNACKERS AND RENDERS
Subject: Re: KNACKERS AND RENDERS
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 16:04:14 ·0700
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: jonathan.leake@sunday-times.co.uk, dipesh.gadher@Sunday-times.co.uk
do you have access to the;
The Veterinary-Record, December 20/27, 1997 Papers and Articles Effect of rendering procedures on the scrapie agent D. M. Taylor, S.L. Woodgate, A.J. Fleetwood, R.J.G. Cawthorne it's about 6 or 7 pages. i do not have it scanned and it's fairly fine print, however good print. also the report; The Veterinary Record, March 2, 1991 Papers and Articles Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: epidemiological studies on the origin there is a good section of rendering; Survey of rendering processes, solvents etc (very detailed on temps and processes) can scan copy correct and paste, but it will take some time, or fax COLLECT to you. I'm running out of quarters fast, nobody paying me to do this, and i am on disablility. so the fax will have to be collect ... regards, Terry 1 of 1 8/13/00 1 :06 PM
end...TSS
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 23:27:10 +0000 (GMT)
From:
Subject: confidential
To: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
Okay, you need to know. You don't need to pass it on as nothing will come of it and there is not a damned thing anyone can do about it. Don't even hint at it as it will be denied and laughed at..........
USDA is gonna do as little as possible until there is actually a human case in the USA of the nvcjd........
if you want to move this thing along and shake the earth....then we gotta get the victims families to make sure whoever is doing the autopsy is credible, trustworthy, and a saint with the courage of Joan of Arc........
I am not kidding!!!! so, unless we get a human death from EXACTLY the same form with EXACTLY the same histopath lesions as seen in the UK nvcjd........
forget any action........it is ALL gonna be sporadic!!!
And, if there is a case.......there is gonna be every effort to link it to international travel, international food, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. They will go so far as to find out if a sex partner had ever traveled to the UK/europe, etc. etc. ....
It is gonna be a long, lonely, dangerous twisted journey to the truth. They have all the cards, all the money, and are willing to threaten and carry out those threats....
and this may be their biggest downfall.
=========================================
snip...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102161333/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1976/10/12004001.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20040823105233/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/10/00001001.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102172428/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/sc/seac17/tab03.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102193705/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m11b/tab01.pdf
snip...
ANOTHER CJD CONFIRMED IN IDAHO CLUSTER (Scjd) Wed Feb 1, 2006 08:07 71.248.143.249
BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like prion strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein
Emmanuel A. Asante, Jacqueline M. Linehan, Melanie Desbruslais, Susan Joiner, Ian Gowland, Andrew L. Wood, Julie Welch, Andrew F. Hill, Sarah E. Lloyd, Jonathan D.F. Wadsworth, and John Collinge1 MRC Prion Unit and Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, Institute of Neurology, University College, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK 1Corresponding author e-mail: j.collinge@prion.ucl.ac.ukReceived August 1, 2002; Revised September 24, 2002; Accepted October 17, 2002.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC136957/?tool=pubmed
CJD RISING SWITZERLAND
CJD is a predominantly sporadic disorder but can also occur as a dominantly inherited or infective condition. Only one of the 26 most recent confirmed cases was identified as carrying a disease related mutation of the PRNP gene, none had identifiable iatrogenic exposure, and none resembled variant CJD. Thus 25 of the 26 cases appear to be sporadic cases. Sporadic CJD is distributed worldwide with a reported incidence of about one in a million per year. Raised awareness of the disease in recent years could account for an increase in reported cases of CJD, although neither an increase in the average age of patients nor more frequent recognition of CJD amongst residents of nursing homes (where dementing illness is prevalent and misdiagnosis might be expected) were seen in the Swiss cases. Moreover, improved ascertainment as an explanation for the observed increase would imply levels of under-reporting in countries other than Switzerland, which appear implausible. The authors of the Lancet report suggest that the rise in cases might be due to some form of unidentified iatrogenic transmission or to exposure to a zoonotic source of infection, though cases do not resemble variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The ongoing surveillance of CJD in Switzerland and the rest of Europe is essential to monitor the situation to see if this rise is sustained in Switzerland, and if a similar rise occurs in other countries (see http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk).
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1921
Prion data suggest BSE link to sporadic CJD Declan Butler
Predicting the number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in people as a result of transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has just got more difficult.Whereas it was thought that BSE only caused a new form of the disease called variant CJD (vCJD), a study in mice from a team led by John Collinge at University College London suggests that it may also cause a disease indistinguishable from the commonest form of classical, or 'sporadic', CJD (E.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6915/full/420450a.html
IF we look at sporadic incidence of CJD in UK from 1993 to 2003, the incidence rose from 37 in 1993 to 77 in 2003. THIS seems to show an increase to me? I do not understand the statement ;
However, in the period following the first published description of vCJD in 1996, there was no increasing trend in the reported annual number of U.K. sporadic CJD deaths (52).
IF we go further and look at some of the other documented BSE countries, you will the increase of sporadic CJD there as well ;
Canada from 2 to 25
France from 35 to 108
Germany 21+ to 96
Italy 27 to 76
http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk/sporadic.htm
Switzerland sporadic CJD ;
Swiss rise in CJD raises concerns over possible BSE link [LONDON] THE LANCET
Plaque attack: Swiss patients have spongiform patterns in the brain typical of sporadic CJD. The number of people dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has risen sharply in Switzerland -- sparking fears of a possible link with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
BSE is thought to be the cause of a distinctive form of the brain-wasting disease known as variant CJD. The Swiss cases, in contrast, are standard 'sporadic' CJD. Each year between 1997 and 2000, no more than 11 Swiss people developed CJD. But 19 cases were reported in 2001, and seven were recorded in the first quarter of this year. This is some four times higher than the incidence elsewhere, reports a team led by Adriano Aguzzi of the University Hospital Zurich (M. Glatzel et al. Lancet 360, 139-141; 2002).
The increase could be a mere statistical blip, or it may be due to increased awareness of the disease leading to more diagnoses. More disturbing is the possibility that the cases are linked to the consumption of BSE-infected meat products -- which would mean that the BSE agent can cause two distinct forms of CJD.
Possible links between the Swiss CJD cases and BSE will now be explored by strain-typing experiments in which the disease is transmitted to mice. These tests will take at least a year to complete. "It's the best way to establish or exclude any suspected link," says Moira Bruce of the UK Institute for Animal Health's Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh.
======================================
Experiences in England and Switzerland -- two countries that discovered mad cow disease in their cattle -- have heightened concerns about the possibility some cases of sporadic CJD are due to consuming mad-cow-tainted beef. Both countries have reported increases in sporadic CJD since mad cow was first detected in British herds in 1986.
Switzerland discovered last year its CJD rate was twice that of any other country in the world. Switzerland had been seeing about eight to 11 cases per year from 1997 to 2000. Then the incidence more than doubled, to 19 cases in 2001 and 18 cases in 2002.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030721-102924-4786r
Mouse model sheds new light on human prion disease
snip...
Professor John Collinge said We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a result of BSE exposure, but some more recent cases may be the incidence of sporadic CJD has shown an upward trend in the UK over the last decade. While most of this apparent increase may be because doctors are now more aware of CJD and better at diagnosing it, serious consideration should be given to a proportion of this rise being BSE-related. Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic, has noted a sharp recent increase in sporadic CJD.
snip...
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/txt/index/public-interest/public-news-4/public-news_archive/public-news-archive_nov_dec_02/public-bse_and_sporadic_cjd.htm
Monday, May 19, 2008
SPORADIC CJD IN FARMERS, FARMERS WIVES, FROM FARMS WITH BSE HERD AND ABATTOIRS
http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/
Sunday, August 10, 2008
A New Prionopathy OR more of the same old BSe and sporadic CJD
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-prionopathy-or-more-of-same-old-bse.html
Epidemiologic implications of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a 19 year-old girl
Journal European Journal of Epidemiology Publisher Springer Netherlands ISSN 0393-2990 (Print) 1573-7284 (Online) Issue Volume 1, Number 1 / March, 1985
P. Brown1, F. Cathala2, R. Labauge3, M. Pages3, J. C. Alary3 and H. Baron
(1) Laboratory of CNS Studies, NINCDS, National Institutes of Health, 20205 Bethesda, Maryland, USA (2) Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France (3) Départment de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Montpellier, France
Abstract A histopathologically-verified, clinically typical case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is described in a 19 year-old girl. Only 3 previous cases of CJD have been reported in adolescents, and one of these was iatrogenically transmitted, while another was familial. Epidemiologic investigation of the present case excluded a familial component, and provided no evidence for iatrogenic or natural case-to-case transmission, or of other environmental sources of viral contamination. Young patients such as this one serve to emphasize the obscurity that still sourrounds the epidemiology of CJD, and invite serious reconsideration of the possibilities of transmission by undetected virus carriers, or of the agent as a natural resident of human cells, replication of which might be triggered by non-infective (e.g., traumatic or mutational) environmental events. Key words Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - Epidemiology
P. Brown1, F. Cathala2, R. Labauge3, M. Pages3, J. C. Alary3 and H. Baron
(1) Laboratory of CNS Studies, NINCDS, National Institutes of Health, 20205 Bethesda, Maryland, USA (2) Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France (3) Départment de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Montpellier, France
Abstract A histopathologically-verified, clinically typical case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is described in a 19 year-old girl. Only 3 previous cases of CJD have been reported in adolescents, and one of these was iatrogenically transmitted, while another was familial. Epidemiologic investigation of the present case excluded a familial component, and provided no evidence for iatrogenic or natural case-to-case transmission, or of other environmental sources of viral contamination. Young patients such as this one serve to emphasize the obscurity that still sourrounds the epidemiology of CJD, and invite serious reconsideration of the possibilities of transmission by undetected virus carriers, or of the agent as a natural resident of human cells, replication of which might be triggered by non-infective (e.g., traumatic or mutational) environmental events. Key words Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - Epidemiology
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j344470112792q50/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j344470112792q50/fulltext.pdf?page=1
2. Sporadic CJD normally occurs in people in their 50s and 60s although it can occur more rarely in younger age groups. Until this year the youngest case of sporadic CJD in the UK had been in a 34 year old. Other countries, howver, have reported sporadic CJD in teenagers. Those we know about are;
* in the USA, a 16 year old in 1978;
* in France, a 19 year old in 1982;
* in Canada, a 14 year old of UK origin in 1988;
* in Poland cases in people aged 19, 23, and 27 were identified in a retrospective study (published 1991), having been originally misdiagnosed with a viral encephalitis;
* Creutzfeldt's first patient in 1920 was aged 23.
full text ;
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20081106132604/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1995/10/27013001.PDF
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. Published Online First: 23 May 2007. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.104570 © 2007 by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
Original articles
Sporadic creutzfeldt-jakob disease in two adolescents
K Murray 1, D L Ritchie 1, M Bruce 2, C A Young 3, M Doran 3, J W Ironside 4 and R G Will 4* 1 NationalCJD Surveillance Unit, United Kingdom 2 Neuropathogenesis Unit, United Kingdom 3 Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, United Kingdom 4 National CJD Surveillance Unit, United Kingdom
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: r.g.will@ed.ac.uk.
Accepted 15 April 2007
Abstract
Background: Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a condition predominantly affecting older age groups, with cases aged less than 45 years rare and an age at onset or death of less than 20 years exceptional.
Methods: Data from the systematic study of sporadic CJD in the UK are available from 1970 onwards. Clinical and pathological data are reviewed in order to identify atypical cases, including those at the extremes of the age range of sporadic CJD. Detailed analysis of atypical cases is undertaken and in selected cases laboratory transmission studies are carried out in order to provide information on the characteristics of the infectious agent.
Results: In the UK two cases of sporadic CJD in adolescents have been identified, dying aged 16 and 20 years. The first case predated the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the characteristics of the second case, including laboratory transmission studies, are consistent with a diagnosis of sporadic rather than variant CJD.
Conclusion: The cases in this report indicate that sporadic CJD can develop at a very young age, that variant CJD is not the only form of CJD occurring in this age group and that neuropathological examination is essential to accurate diagnosis of human prion disease.
http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/jnnp.2006.104570v1
http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/07/novel-human-disease-with-abnormal-prion.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
please note ;
Original Paper
Surgery and Risk of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Denmark and Sweden: Registry-Based Case-Control Studies Ignacio Mahillo-Fernandeza, Jesús de Pedro-Cuestaa, Maria José Bledaa, Mabel Cruzb, Kåre Mølbakc, Henning Laursend, Gerhard Falkenhorstc, Pablo Martínez-Martína, Åke Sidenb, on behalf of the EUROSURGYCJD Research Group
aDepartment of Applied Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid, Spain; bDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology Division, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; cDepartment of Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institute, and dNeuropathology Laboratory, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
Address of Corresponding Author
Neuroepidemiology 2008;31:229-240 (DOI: 10.1159/000163097)
Abstract
Background: Epidemiologic evidence of surgical transmission of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) remains controversial. Methods: From Danish and Swedish registries we selected 167 definite and probable sCJD cases (with onset between 1987 and 2003) and 3,059 controls (835 age-, sex-, and residence-matched, and 2,224 unmatched). Independent of case/control status, surgical histories were obtained from National Hospital Discharge Registries. Surgical procedures were categorized by body system group and lag time to onset of sCJD. Exposure frequencies were compared using logistic regression. Results: A history of any major surgery, conducted 20 years before sCJD onset, was more common in cases than both matched (OR = 2.44, 95% CI = 1.46-4.07) and unmatched controls (OR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.48-3.44). This observation was corroborated by a linear increase in risk per surgical discharge (OR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.13-2.18; OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.18-1.91). Surgery of various body systems, including peripheral vessels, digestive system and spleen, and female genital organs, was significantly associated with increased sCJD risk. Conclusions: A variety of major surgical procedures constitute a risk factor for sCJD following an incubation period of many years. A considerable number of sCJD cases may originate from health care-related accidental transmission.
Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel
snip...
Discussion Overall, the present study indicates that a considerable proportion of sCJD may constitute a health care-related disorder, accidentally transmitted during surgery. While this has been suggested before [7–10] , the present study is unique because of the unbiased assessment of exposure histories for decades before disease onset, randomly chosen controls, and strict lag time measurement. The lack of surgical history data prior to the establishment of the National Hospital Discharge Registries in the early 1970s and low statistical power preclude the assessment of early- in-life surgery or specific infrequent procedures. The main findings were supported by analyses including both MCs and UMCs. The UMCs were not essential for this study, but it was reassuring to learn that a similar study could be undertaken in another setting where it was impossible to sample MCs as a reference group.
snip...
Conflicting reports from previously published casecontrol studies regarding the association between surgery and sCJD may partially be explained by variations in the type of control subjects used and in exposure assessment [31] . Even though we did not find a significant association between surgery performed at any time predating 1 1 year before onset, our results are consistent with positive results for lifetime surgical history found in recent, large studies using community controls [7, 9, 10] . Like us, one study reports dose-response effects [7] . Hence, in accordance with these studies and other reports suggesting that some types of surgery, e.g. cataract surgery [32, 33] , might be performed as a consequence of early sCJD manifestations, it appears that surgery may constitute: (1) a risk factor of sCJD with a considerable time lag, and (2) a risk indicator with yet unknown causal links for specific types of (recent) surgery, possibly including coronary surgery.
What then are the potential implications for public health? Based on period-specific ORs of 1.44 (10–19 years) and 2.44 ( 6 20 years), and 22 and 19% exposed, unrepeated cases for each window, we estimate the population- attributable proportion to be 18%. This figure may constitute a considerable underestimation of the effect of lifetime surgical history on sCJD incidence, because in our study the ascertainment of exposure to surgery before the middle of the 1970s was compromised by the incompleteness of hospital discharge registries. In the UK, a positive lifetime surgical history was recorded from 1980 onwards in 58 and 59% of vCJD cases and controls, with median ages of 26 and 33 years [34] . Since the
majority of surgical interventions at such ages was not captured in our study, and our results suggest that the lower the age at surgery, the higher the risk, the figure of 35% proposed by Ward et al. [9] for the population-attributable risk of sCJD due to lifetime surgery in the UK would appear to be a conservative estimate for Denmark and Sweden.
While negative results have been reported for clustered surgical chains [35] , studies supporting the hypothesis of a frequent surgical transmission of sCJD might be a French cluster of multioperated cases [36] ; the high sCJD incidence in regions with a high incidence of genetic transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, potentially acting as a focus for point source epidemics, such as in the Spanish Basque Country [37] (http://www.isciii. es/htdocs/pdf/DatosRegistroCreutzfeldJacob.ppt), and occasional increases in CJD incidence in countries where iatrogenic transmission has been mentioned as a possible cause [38] .
To conclude, we provide evidence to indicate that surgery, acting with long incubation periods, has constituted a risk factor for sCJD in Sweden and Denmark. The associations may have implications for precautionary measures and surveillance.
http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=000163097
http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowPDF&ArtikelNr=000163097&Ausgabe=240333&ProduktNr=224263&filename=000163097.pdf
Cross infection control measures and the treatment of patients at risk of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in UK general dental practice
J. Bagg,1 C. P. Sweeney,2 K. M. Roy,3 T. Sharp,4 and A. Smith,5
Aims To determine the suitability of key infection control measures currently employed in UK dental practice for delivery of dental care to patients at risk of prion diseases.
Materials and methods Subjects: Five hundred dental surgeons currently registered with the General Dental Council of the UK.
Data collection: Structured postal questionnaire.
Analysis: Frequencies, cross-tabulations and chi-squared analysis. Results The valid response rate to the questionnaire was 69%. 33% of practices had no policy on general disinfection and sterilisation procedures. Only 10 of the 327 responding practices (3%) possessed a vacuum autoclave. 49% of dentists reported using the BDA medical history form but less than 25% asked the specific questions recommended by the BDA to identify patients at risk of iatrogenic or familial CJD. However, 63% of practitioners would refer such patients, if identified, to a secondary care facility. Of the 107 practitioners who were prepared to provide dental treatment, 75 (70%) would do so using routine infection control procedures.
Conclusions Most of the dental practices surveyed were not actively seeking to identify patients at risk of prion diseases. In many cases, recommended procedures for providing safe dental care for such patients were not in place.
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185/1/Bagg[1].pdf
AFTER consumption and or exposure, then the pass it forward and or friendly fire begins ;
Thursday, May 27, 2010 Guidance for Industry: Revised Preventive Measures to Reduce Possible Risk of Transmission of CJD and vCJD by blood and blood products; Availability
[Federal Register: May 27, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 102)] [Notices] [Page 29768-29769] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr27my10-66]
http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/05/guidance-for-industry-revised.html
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Current risk of iatrogenic Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in the UK: efficacy of available cleaning chemistries and reusability of neurosurgical instruments
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/05/current-risk-of-iatrogenic.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
ATYPICAL BSE MORE VIRULENT THAN C-BSE, USDA AND OIE ARE POISONING THE GLOBE LIKE THE U.K. DID $$$
To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.
http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2
14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)
18.173 page 189
Experimental Challenge of Cattle with H-type and L-type Atypical BSE
A. Buschmann1, U. Ziegler1, M. Keller1, R. Rogers2, B. Hills3, M.H. Groschup1. 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany, 2Health Canada, Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products & Food Branch, Ottawa, Canada, 3Health Canada, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Secretariat, Ottawa, Canada
Background: After the detection of two novel BSE forms designated H-type and L-type atypical BSE the question of the pathogenesis and the agent distribution of these two types in cattle was fully open. From initial studies of the brain pathology, it was already known that the anatomical distribution of L-type BSE differs from that of the classical type where the obex region in the brainstem always displays the highest PrPSc concentrations. In contrast in L-type BSE cases, the thalamus and frontal cortex regions showed the highest levels of the pathological prion protein, while the obex region was only weakly involved.
Methods:We performed intracranial inoculations of cattle (five and six per group) using 10%brainstemhomogenates of the two German H- and L-type atypical BSE isolates. The animals were inoculated under narcosis and then kept in a free-ranging stable under appropriate biosafety conditions.At least one animal per group was killed and sectioned in the preclinical stage and the remaining animals were kept until they developed clinical symptoms. The animals were examined for behavioural changes every four weeks throughout the experiment following a protocol that had been established during earlier BSE pathogenesis studies with classical BSE.
Results and Discussion: All animals of both groups developed clinical symptoms and had to be euthanized within 16 months. The clinical picture differed from that of classical BSE, as the earliest signs of illness were loss of body weight and depression. However, the animals later developed hind limb ataxia and hyperesthesia predominantly and the head. Analysis of brain samples from these animals confirmed the BSE infection and the atypical Western blot profile was maintained in all animals. Samples from these animals are now being examined in order to be able to describe the pathogenesis and agent distribution for these novel BSE types. Conclusions: A pilot study using a commercially avaialble BSE rapid test ELISA revealed an essential restriction of PrPSc to the central nervous system for both atypical BSE forms. A much more detailed analysis for PrPSc and infectivity is still ongoing.
http://www.isid.org/14th_icid/
http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/IMED2009_AbstrAuth.pdf
http://www.isid.org/publications/ICID_Archive.shtml
14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -
Final Abstract Number: ISE.114
Session: International Scientific Exchange
Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America
update October 2009
T. Singeltary
Bacliff, TX, USA
Background:
An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.
Methods:
12 years independent research of available data
Results:
I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.
Conclusion:
I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.
http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf
International Society for Infectious Diseases Web: http://www.isid.org/
I ask Professor Kong ;
Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment
''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''
Professor Kong reply ;
.....snip
''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete.
Thanks for your interest.''
Best regards,
Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA
END...TSS
P02.35
Molecular Features of the Protease-resistant Prion Protein (PrPres) in H-type BSE
Biacabe, A-G1; Jacobs, JG2; Gavier-Widén, D3; Vulin, J1; Langeveld, JPM2; Baron, TGM1 1AFSSA, France; 2CIDC-Lelystad, Netherlands; 3SVA, Sweden
Western blot analyses of PrPres accumulating in the brain of BSE-infected cattle have demonstrated 3 different molecular phenotypes regarding to the apparent molecular masses and glycoform ratios of PrPres bands. We initially described isolates (H-type BSE) essentially characterized by higher PrPres molecular mass and decreased levels of the diglycosylated PrPres band, in contrast to the classical type of BSE. This type is also distinct from another BSE phenotype named L-type BSE, or also BASE (for Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy), mainly characterized by a low representation of the diglycosylated PrPres band as well as a lower PrPres molecular mass. Retrospective molecular studies in France of all available BSE cases older than 8 years old and of part of the other cases identified since the beginning of the exhaustive surveillance of the disease in 20001 allowed to identify 7 H-type BSE cases, among 594 BSE cases that could be classified as classical, L- or H-type BSE. By Western blot analysis of H-type PrPres, we described a remarkable specific feature with antibodies raised against the C-terminal region of PrP that demonstrated the existence of a more C-terminal cleaved form of PrPres (named PrPres#2 ), in addition to the usual PrPres form (PrPres #1). In the unglycosylated form, PrPres #2 migrates at about 14 kDa, compared to 20 kDa for PrPres #1. The proportion of the PrPres#2 in cattle seems to by higher compared to the PrPres#1. Furthermore another PK–resistant fragment at about 7 kDa was detected by some more N-terminal antibodies and presumed to be the result of cleavages of both N- and C-terminal parts of PrP. These singular features were maintained after transmission of the disease to C57Bl/6 mice. The identification of these two additional PrPres fragments (PrPres #2 and 7kDa band) reminds features reported respectively in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS) syndrome in humans.
http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2007/abstract_book.pdf
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Atypical BSE in Cattle
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/03/atypical-bse-in-cattle-position-post.html
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
SEAC NEW RESULTS ON IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS (IBNC) FROM THE VETERINARY LABORATORIES AGENCY (VLA) SEAC 103/1
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/11/seac-new-results-on-idiopathic.html
NEW RESULTS ON IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS "All of the 15 cattle tested showed that the brains had abnormally accumulated PrP" 2009
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-results-on-idiopathic-brainstem.html
AND THE USDA ET AL KNEW IT TOO ;
""These 9,200 cases were different because brain tissue samples were preserved with formalin, which makes them suitable for only one type of test--immunohistochemistry, or IHC."
THIS WAS DONE FOR A REASON!
THE IHC test has been proven to be the LEAST LIKELY to detect BSE/TSE in the bovine, and these were probably from the most high risk cattle pool, the ones the USDA et al, SHOULD have been testing. ...TSS
USDA 2003
We have to be careful that we don't get so set in the way we do things that we forget to look for different emerging variations of disease. We've gotten away from collecting the whole brain in our systems. We're using the brain stem and we're looking in only one area. In Norway, they were doing a project and looking at cases of Scrapie, and they found this where they did not find lesions or PRP in the area of the obex. They found it in the cerebellum and the cerebrum. It's a good lesson for us. Ames had to go back and change the procedure for looking at Scrapie samples. In the USDA, we had routinely looked at all the sections of the brain, and then we got away from it. They've recently gone back. Dr. Keller: Tissues are routinely tested, based on which tissue provides an 'official' test result as recognized by APHIS.
Dr. Detwiler: That's on the slaughter. But on the clinical cases, aren't they still asking for the brain? But even on the slaughter, they're looking only at the brainstem. We may be missing certain things if we confine ourselves to one area.
snip.............
Dr. Detwiler: It seems a good idea, but I'm not aware of it. Another important thing to get across to the public is that the negatives do not guarantee absence of infectivity. The animal could be early in the disease and the incubation period. Even sample collection is so important. If you're not collecting the right area of the brain in sheep, or if collecting lymphoreticular tissue, and you don't get a good biopsy, you could miss the area with the PRP in it and come up with a negative test. There's a new, unusual form of Scrapie that's been detected in Norway. We have to be careful that we don't get so set in the way we do things that we forget to look for different emerging variations of disease. We've gotten away from collecting the whole brain in our systems. We're using the brain stem and we're looking in only one area. In Norway, they were doing a project and looking at cases of Scrapie, and they found this where they did not find lesions or PRP in the area of the obex. They found it in the cerebellum and the cerebrum. It's a good lesson for us. Ames had to go back and change the procedure for looking at Scrapie samples. In the USDA, we had routinely looked at all the sections of the brain, and then we got away from it. They've recently gone back.
Dr. Keller: Tissues are routinely tested, based on which tissue provides an 'official' test result as recognized by APHIS .
Dr. Detwiler: That's on the slaughter. But on the clinical cases, aren't they still asking for the brain? But even on the slaughter, they're looking only at the brainstem. We may be missing certain things if we confine ourselves to one area.
snip...
Completely Edited Version PRION ROUNDTABLE
Accomplished this day, Wednesday, December 11, 2003, Denver, Colorado
end...TSS
ONE FINAL COMMENT PLEASE, (i know this is long Dr. Freas but please bear with me)
THE USA is in a most unique situation, one of unknown circumstances with human and animal TSE. THE USA has the most documented TSE in different species to date, with substrains growing in those species (BSE/BASE in cattle and CWD in deer and elk, there is evidence here with different strains), and we know that sheep scrapie has over 20 strains of the typical scrapie with atypical scrapie documented and also BSE is very likely to have passed to sheep. all of which have been rendered and fed back to animals for human and animal consumption, a frightening scenario. WE do not know the outcome, and to play with human life around the globe with the very likely TSE tainted blood from the USA, in my opinion is like playing Russian roulette, of long duration, with potential long and enduring consequences, of which once done, cannot be undone.
These are the facts as i have come to know through daily and extensive research of TSE over 9 years, since 12/14/97. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but i do know to continue to believe in the ukbsenvcjd only theory of transmission to humans of only this one strain from only this one TSE from only this one part of the globe, will only lead to further failures, and needless exposure to humans from all strains of TSE, and possibly many more needless deaths from TSE via a multitude of proven routes and sources via many studies with primates and rodents and other species. ...
SNIP... SEE FULL TEXT
PAGE 1 STARTS ON PAGE 13, SKROLL TO PAGE 13...TSS
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=09000064801f3413&disposition=attachment&contentType=msw8
USA DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS AND TME
Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the farm died from TME.
snip...
The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or dead dairy cattle...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf
PLEASE be aware, for 4 years, the USDA fed our children all across the Nation dead stock downer cows, the most high risk cattle for BSE aka mad cow disease and other dangerous pathogens. who will watch our children for CJD for the next 5+ decades ???
SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM FROM DOWNER CATTLE UPDATE
http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2009/05/who-will-watch-children.html
http://downercattle.blogspot.com/
WHAT MAD COW FEED BAN ???
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant Feed/Adulterated/Misbranded Rangen Inc 2/11/10 USA
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-proteins-prohibited-in-ruminant.html
Monday, March 1, 2010
ANIMAL PROTEIN I.E. MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE A REVIEW 2010
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-protien-ie-mad-cow-feed-in.html
Terry S. Singeltary Sr. (Submitted question): Monday, April 5, 2010
Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSE April 5, 2010
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-on-feed-enforcement-activities.html
Saturday, June 12, 2010
PUBLICATION REQUEST AND FOIA REQUEST Project Number: 3625-32000-086-05 Study of Atypical Bse
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/06/publication-request-and-foia-request.html
Archive Number 20100405.1091 Published Date 05-APR-2010
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Prion disease update 1010 (04)
snip...
[Terry S. Singeltary Sr. has added the following comment:
"According to the World Health Organisation, the future public health threat of vCJD in the UK and Europe and potentially the rest of the world is of concern and currently unquantifiable. However, the possibility of a significant and geographically diverse vCJD epidemic occurring over the next few decades cannot be dismissed
.
The key word here is diverse. What does diverse mean? If USA scrapie transmitted to USA bovine does not produce pathology as the UK c-BSE, then why would CJD from there look like UK vCJD?"
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:568933508083034::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,82101
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Research Project: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies: Identification of atypical scrapie in Canadian sheep
http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/06/research-project-transmissible.html
Heidenhain Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease autopsy case report 'MOM'
DIVISION OF NEUROPATHOLOGY University of Texas Medical Branch 114 McCullough Bldg. Galveston, Texas 77555-0785
FAX COVER SHEET
DATE: 4-23-98
TO: Mr. Terry Singeltary @ -------
FROM: Gerald Campbell
FAX: (409) 772-5315 PHONE: (409) 772-2881
Number of Pages (including cover sheet):
Message:
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*
This document accompanying this transmission contains confidential information belonging to the sender that is legally privileged. This information is intended only for the use of the individual or entry names above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying distribution, or the taking of any action in reliances on the contents of this telefaxed information is strictly prohibited. If you received this telefax in error, please notify us by telephone immediately to arrange for return of the original documents. -------------------------- Patient Account: 90000014-518 Med. Rec. No.: (0160)118511Q Patient Name: POULTER, BARBARA Age: 63 YRS DOB: 10/17/34 Sex: F Admitting Race: C
Attending Dr.: Date / Time Admitted : 12/14/97 1228 Copies to:
UTMB University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas 77555-0543 (409) 772-1238 Fax (409) 772-5683 Pathology Report
FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS Autopsy' Office (409)772-2858
Autopsy NO.: AU-97-00435
AUTOPSY INFORMATION: Occupation: Unknown Birthplace: Unknown Residence: Crystal Beach Date/Time of Death: 12/14/97 13:30 Date/Time of Autopsy: 12/15/97 15:00 Pathologist/Resident: Pencil/Fernandez Service: Private Restriction: Brain only
FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS
I. Brain: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Heidenhain variant.
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/07/heidenhain-variant-creutzfeldt-jakob.html
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 11:38 AM Subject: PRO-MED ATYPICAL SCRAPIE
Background ----------- "Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. [Many of the neurological diseases can be transmitted by intracerebral inoculation, which causes this moderator to approach intracerebral studies as a tool for study, but not necessarily as a direct indication of transmissibility of natural diseases. - Mod.TG]
"The 1st successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.
"Results -------- "This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological, and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.
"Conclusions ------------ Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage."
Lastly, this moderator wishes to thank Terry Singletary for some of his behind the scenes work of providing citations and references for this posting. - Mod.TG]
The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Australia is available at. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:962575216785367::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,81729
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010
http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2010/04/scrapie-and-atypical-scrapie.html
http://nor-98.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 14, 2010
Prion Strain Mutation Determined by Prion Protein Conformational Compatibility and Primary Structure
Published Online May 13, 2010 Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1187107 Science Express Index
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/05/prion-strain-mutation-determined-by.html
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Prion Strain Mutation and Selection John Collinge
MEDICINE
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/06/prion-strain-mutation-and-selection.html
TRADE, TRADE, TRADE, TO HELL WITH HUMAN HEALTH, and a disease that will kill you after your term is over, just pass it on. I have written to every President since this nightmare began. and that is what this disease does, you pass it forward via a multitude of proven routes and sources via the medical, dental, and surgical arena's once exposed. what the USA is doing now, is the same thing the UK did with their mad cow disease, when they poisoned the globe. it's all about money $$$
DAMNING TESTIMONY FROM STANLEY PRUSINER THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER ON PRIONS SPEAKING ABOUT ANN VENEMAN
''they don't wanna know, the dont' care''
http://maddeer.org/video/embedded/prusinerclip.html
Saturday, June 19, 2010
U.S. DENIED UPGRADED BSE STATUS FROM OIE
see full text and reasons why here ;
http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-denied-upgraded-bse-status-from-oie.html
TSE
please read Senate 'Down Under' TSS SUBMISSION TO HANSARD SENATE VIA ABA, link at bottom of the following url ;
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/
RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 26 March 2003
I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/60/2/176#535
re-Human Prion Diseases in the United States
Posted by flounder on 01 Jan 2010 at 18:11 GMT
http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd&root=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd
Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: Title: HUMAN and ANIMAL TSE Classifications i.e. mad cow disease and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory Article Type: Personal View Corresponding Author: Mr. Terry S. Singeltary, Corresponding Author's Institution: na First Author: Terry S Singeltary, none Order of Authors: Terry S Singeltary, none; Terry S. Singeltary Abstract: TSEs have been rampant in the USA for decades in many species, and they all have been rendered and fed back to animals for human/animal consumption. I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2007.
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=090000648027c28e&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 2003 revisited 2009
http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/monitoring-occurrence-of-emerging-forms.html
IF you consider the many different TSE strains in different species in North America, and then think 'friendly fire' there from. For a few years now there seems to be a rise here in the U.S.A. of sporadic CJD strains of 'unknown phenotype', with ;
5 Includes 28 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 17 inconclusive cases;
6 Includes 28 (24 from 2010) cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded
http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf
There is a growing number of human CJD cases, and they were presented last week in San Francisco by Luigi Gambatti(?) from his CJD surveillance collection.
He estimates that it may be up to 14 or 15 persons which display selectively SPRPSC and practically no detected RPRPSC proteins.
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/1006-4240t1.htm
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4240t1.pdf
ATYPICAL BSE MORE VIRULENT TO HUMANS THAN UK STRAIN
18 January 2007 - Draft minutes of the SEAC 95 meeting (426 KB) held on 7 December 2006 are now available.
snip...
64. A member noted that at the recent Neuroprion meeting, a study was presented showing that in transgenic mice BSE passaged in sheep may be more virulent and infectious to a wider range of species than bovine derived BSE.
Other work presented suggested that BSE and bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE) MAY BE RELATED. A mutation had been identified in the prion protein gene in an AMERICAN BASE CASE THAT WAS SIMILAR IN NATURE TO A MUTATION FOUND IN CASES OF SPORADIC CJD.
snip...
http://www.seac.gov.uk/minutes/95.pdf
2008 - 2010
The statistical incidence of CJD cases in the United States has been revised to reflect that there is one case per 9000 in adults age 55 and older. Eighty-five percent of the cases are sporadic, meaning there is no known cause at present.
http://www.cjdfoundation.org/fact.html
CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER
>>> Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle. <<<
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/03/irma-linda-andablo-cjd-victim-she-died.html
CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2010/03/cjd-texas-38-year-old-female-worked.html
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance in Texas
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/
Friday, February 05, 2010
New Variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease case reports United States 2010 A Review
http://vcjd.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-variant-creutzfelt-jakob-disease.html
Friday, November 30, 2007
CJD QUESTIONNAIRE USA CWRU AND CJD FOUNDATION
http://cjdquestionnaire.blogspot.com/
IN CLOSING, I wish to say that if anyone still thinks that 85% to 90% of all sporadic CJD is a spontaneous happening without any route and source of the TSE agent, just a happen stance of bad luck, as some officials still claim today, as with every hospital that has a CJD exposure accident will tell you, if anyone still believes this, they should then go and resign from whatever scientific and or doctors field you practice in, because YOU are then partially responsible for the continued spread of this horrible disease around the Globe. For Pete's sake, if clusters happen with animal TSE, then why not humans? IF all these TSE transmit to many different animal species, both in the field and in the lab, what make's it so hard to believe that it will not transmit to humans? IF all these TSE in all these many different species, with all these many different strains now appearing, both typical and atypical, with over 20 strains in just typical scrapie alone, nor-98 atypical scrapie, with BSE freely transmitting to sheep as well, now 4 BSE strains in cattle i.e. c-BSE, l-BSE, h-BSE, and IBNC (prion gods will have to admit this is a prion TSE disease sooner or later), now 2 strains of CWD documented i.e. CWD-1 and CWD-2, and the TME with the drowsy TME strain and the hyper TME strain, if all this has been fed to humans and to livestock producing animals for human and animal consumption, then what would human TSE there from look like, either from consumption, or 2nd, 3rd, 4th passage via friendly fire i.e. via surgical, dental, blood, medical arenas, from humans exposed by consumption ? NOT to forget all the animal medical by-products there from too? BUT yet, officials will still try and have us believe that 85% to 95% of all human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE i.e. sporadic CJD, is a single strain, that just happens spontaneously, with no route and source from anything. P L E A S E, This is not rocket science. It's 2010, and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory should be put to rest once and for all. Iatrogenic CJD is spreading as we speak, there are many strains, they are becoming more virulent, and they came from some route and some source, and that could be many. North America is home to the most strains of documented natural field TSE in animals. These animals have been fed to both humans and animals for human consumption. The consumer there from are a source of TSE to the medical and surgical arena, and clusters there from are real, they are happening and there is a route and source. CJD and all human TSE prion disease must be made mandatory reportable, with NO age limits, with a CJD Questionnaire asking real questions pertaining to potential routes and sources going to all families of victims of this horrible disease. This must be done Nationally and Internationally immediately. We have floundered too long. ...
tarball, aka flounder, alias TSS, and for those that remember, madcowdeadmommadson
Terry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. Box 42 Bacliff, Texas USA 77518
From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
To: CJD-L@LISTS.AEGEE.ORG
Cc: BSE-L@LISTS.AEGEE.ORG ; cjdvoice@yahoogroups.com ; BLOODCJD@YAHOOGROUPS.COM
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 9:27 PM
Subject: GLOBAL CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010
CLUSTERS OF CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE - A REVIEW 2010
Subject: J.P. MORGAN INVESTORS WARNED ABOUT POTENTIAL SPORADIC CJD AND BSE RELATION
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
Reply-To: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 08:33:38 -0600 Content-Type: text/plain
######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
North American Equity ResearchNew York13 January 2004
BSE (Mad Cow) Update: Do Reports of sCJD Clusters Matter?
· There have been seven cases of human sCJD clusters identified in the US in the last 15 years, in which people in a specific location were diagnosed with sCJD, resulting in rates between 2.1 and 8.4 deaths per million people for that specific location compared with the national average of one in 1 million. · There is no proven link between sCJD and BSE, and hence it is considered a different disease from vCJD (which has been linked to BSE). However, the existence of clusters raises the question of “contamination" or “infection”, and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD these might have been cases of vCJD. · Clusters are not spontaneous, they normally have a source. Moreover, some cases of sCJD may have been improperly diagnosed as Alzheimer's.· We continue to believe that as long as no further cases of BSE-positive cows are found in North America and the industry has respected the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle, beef consumption in the US will not suffer. · Moreover, due to political pressure we expect key overseas markets (Japan, South Korea, and Mexico) to open up to US beef in the next six months – the recent 20% drop in cattle prices can be attributed mainly to these import bans. · However, two concerns linger and should be kept in mind by investors, 1) Has the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle been honored by the beef industry? 2) Can clusters of cases of sporadic CJD (or sCJD) really be a variant of CJD and indeed be linked to BSE? In this note we focus on the issue of sCJD clusters, and the potential impact that the growing debate on clusters could have on beef consumption in the US. United StatesFoods Pablo E. Zuanic(1-212) 622-6744pablo.zuanic@jpmorgan.comChristopher M. Bledsoe(1-212) 622-6386christopher.m.bledsoe@jpmorgan.comDaniel Ogbonna(212) 622-6382daniel.c.ogbonna@jpmorgan.com
State of Our Views Regarding BSE in the US
We continue to believe that as long as no further cases of BSE-positive cows are found in North America and the industry has respected the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle, beef consumption in the US will not suffer. Moreover, due to political pressure we expect key overseas markets (Japan, South Korea, and Mexico) to open up to US beef in the next six months – the recent 20% drop in cattle prices can be attributed mainly to these import bans.
However, two concerns linger and should be kept in mind by investors, 1) Has the 1997 ban on animal feed for live cattle been honored by the beef industry? The government's General Accounting Office says it has not; 2) Can clusters of cases of sporadic CJD (or sCJD as it is commonly known) really be a variant of CJD and indeed be linked to BSE (vCJD is the scientific term for the disease linked to mad cow)?
In this note we focus on the issue of sCJD clusters.
Do sCJD Clusters Matter?
The media focus (and as a result, the consumer at large) since December 23, thus far, has been on the potential of new BSE-positive cows being found, and on the various initiatives the authorities are taking to prevent an outbreak of BSE. However, the apparent existence of sCJD clusters in the US has received little publicity. If sporadic (or spontaneous) CJD is really spontaneous, it should not be found in population clusters. The fact that it indeed has been found in clusters raises concerns. Understanding the "Difference" Between sCJD and vCJD
Prior to 1996 there was only one known type of CJD, and it was called “sporadic” or “spontaneous” because it was unclear where it came from, or how it was generated. In 1996 scientists in England "discovered" a "variant" of CJD (vCJD), which they indicated could be linked to the animal form of the disease (BSE or Mad Cow). Experts kept vCJD separate from sCJD because unlike the new vCJD the original sCJD could not be directly linked to BSE. However, not enough is known to be fully certain that sporadic CJD is truly spontaneous and has no external catalyst. The other notable difference between vCJD and sCJD is the incubation period. Whereas sCJD has an average incubation period of 40 years and is exceedingly rare in young people, vCJD can affect people of all ages and has a much shorter incubation period of just two to five years. An even more relevant difference is that sCJD is found in 1 out of 1 million people per annum, or 5,000 cases per year on a global basis, while only 180 human cases of vCJD (the type of CJD linked to BSE) have ever been reported.
Existence of Clusters of sCJD May Imply They Are Really Cases of vCJD There have been seven sCJD clusters identified in the US in the last 15 years, in which people in a specific location were diagnosed with sCJD, resulting in rates between 1.2 and 8.4 deaths per million people for that specific location compared with the national average of one in 1 million. The existence of clusters raises the question of “contamination" or “infection”, and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD these might have been cases of vCJD. Clusters are not spontaneous, they normally have a source.
A cluster consists of two statistical improbabilities: 1) multiple cases occurring in a relatively limited geographic area, and 2) multiple cases occurring within the same time period. The most recent cluster was found in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The others have been found in Lehigh, Pennsylvania (1986-90), Allentown, Pennsylvania (1989-92), Tampa, Florida (1996-97), Oregon (2001-02), and Nassau County, New York (1999-2000). Given that sCJD occurs randomly in one out of one million cases, it is a statistical rarity to find an sCJD cluster – let alone six. The following tables highlight known clusters in the US. Table 1: Clustered sCJD Deaths
Local sCJD Deaths
Time Span State Local Area Pop. (MM) Period (mo.) Total Ann'lized
1986-1990 PA Lehigh Valley 0.5 48 18 4.5
1989-1992 PA Allentown 2.5 36 15 5.0
1996-1997 FL Tampa 2.2 18 13 8.7
1996-1999 TX Denton .01 38 4 1.3
1999-2000 NY Nassau County 1.3 12 7 7.0
2001-2002 OR Entire State 3.4 24 14 7.0
2000-2003* NJ Cherry Hill Area 1.7 36 12 4.0
Source: JPMorgan.
The second table, below, shows what portion of the state's total expected sCJD cases (as based on a one per million occurrence) were found in the local cluster, comparing the local cluster's portion of cases with the local area's portion of the state's total population. The greater the factor between the former and the latter suggests a higher statistical improbability that the cluster is spontaneous (sCJD).
Table 2: Clustered sCJD Deaths vs. Expected State Cases Annual Statewide Local Area (% of:)
Time Span State Local Area sCJD Deaths* exp. state cases state pop.
1986-1990 PA Lehigh Valley 11.9 37.8% 4.5%
1989-1992 PA Allentown 12.0 41.7% 20.8%
1996-1997 FL Tampa 14.1 61.5% 15.7%
1996-1999 TX Denton 20.9 6.1% .02%
1999-2000 NY Nassau County 18.1 38.7% 7.4%
2001-2002 OR Entire State 3.4 205.9% 100.0%
2000-2003* NJ Cherry Hill Area 8.0 50.0% 21.6%
* *State cases are extrapolated based on state population and the 1 per million national average. Source: JPMorgan.
The CDC Is Currently Investigating the New Jersey Cluster The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has opened an investigation into a cluster of deaths in an area surrounding Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Specifically, after dismissing the case when it was first brought to their attention earlier in 2003, the agency has since reversed course and on December 31, 2003 sought out information from Janet Skarbek. Skarbek, a Cinnaminson, New Jersey CPA believes she has uncovered a common link between seven deaths in the local area and a restaurant at the now-closed Garden State Race Track. All of the deaths had first been identified as the randomly occurring (one out of one million) cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (sCJD), and six of the deaths occurred between 2000 and 2003.
Science Expanding its Knowledge of CJDs
Have Cases of sCJD Been Overlooked?
Dr. Omar Bagasra believes that a 29 year old that died of presumably sCJD in the New Jersey cluster may have died from a new, mutated form of CJD since sCJD has a typical incubation period of 40 years and is limited to elderly patients in almost all cases. Moreover, he suspects that the link between the seven local deaths (clustered geographically and chronologically) indicates that the new form of the disease is caused by some external catalyst, unlike the randomly occurring sporadic CJD (sCJD). He adds, though, that there may actually have been other unreported CJD-related deaths in the area since the disease is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s.
Diagnoses of Alzheimer’s Might Have Been Cases of CJD
Lawrence Schonberger, the CDC epidemiologist who contacted Janet Skarbek on December 31, is quoted separately as saying that sCJD is underreported on death certificates, and that about 14 percent of cases are missed. In fact, due to similarities between sCJD and Alzheimer’s disease, a 1998 Yale study found that as many as 13 percent of Alzheimer’s deaths are actually sCJD, but conservative estimates place this number closer to 1 percent. If we extrapolate this finding to the 50,000 Alzheimer’s deaths each year in the US, the number of actual sCJD deaths per year is somewhere between 500 and 6500. But, for us this raises additional questions, since at a rate of one per million, the US should not experience much more than 300 sCJD deaths in a single year. Furthermore, Alzheimer cases have grown 50-fold in the last 25 years from 857 cases in 1979 to 50,000 cases in today (albeit part of the increase could very well be attributed to improvements in reporting).
Can sCJD Be Caused by External Agents?
A recent study out of Imperial College in London has led some to believe that the same prions that cause the BSE-related vCJD may also cause a disease that manifests itself in a way that more closely resembles sporadic CJD. John Collinge, the scientist that conducted the experiment, is basing this assertion on findings in the study’s mice, which were injected with BSE prions. As expected, some of the mice developed symptoms from vCJD, but unexpectedly, others suffered from symptoms that more closely resembled sCJD. If true, the implications are significant, as it will force scientists to consider whether cases of sporadic CJD may actually have been caused by consumption of contaminated beef.
Does All This Matter?
For now we await the results of the CDC investigation of the New Jersey cluster. Previous investigations have found clusters to be just coincidences. While this may be the case, we believe that the media may start focusing more on the issue of clusters, and that the debate could raise consumers’ concerns about beef.
But even in the worst case scenario that these clusters were indeed linked to BSE, one could still make the argument that these cases were generated before the 1997 ban on animal feed for cattle was imposed, and that hence chances of contamination since then are unlikely. Still, the question lingers, has the 1997 ban been respected? Will consumers concerns increase as the discussion of CJD clusters hits the national media? Bottom Line: If no new cases of BSE-positive cows are found and the issue of CJD clusters is disregarded by consumers, then the effect on beef consumption will be negligible. On the other hand, new cases of infected cows and/or a wider debate of CJD clusters could indeed have an effect on beef sales.
Analyst Certification
The research analyst who is primarily responsible for this research and whose name is listed first on the front cover certifies (or in a case where multiple analysts are primarily responsible for this research, the analyst named first in each group on the front cover or named within the document individually certifies, with respect to each security or issuer that the analyst covered in this research) that: (1) all of the views expressed in this research accurately reflect his or her personal views about any and all of the subject securities or issuers; and (2) no part of any of the research analyst's compensation was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed by the research analyst in this research.
JPMorgan Equity Research Ratings Distribution, as of December 31, 2003
Copyright 2003 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.—All rights reserved. Additional information available upon request.
snip...
Revised December 12, 2003.
THIS MATERIAL IS DISTRIBUTED IN JAPAN BY J.P. MORGAN SECURITIES ASIA PTE LIMITED.
THIS MATERIAL IS ISSUED AND DISTRIBUTED IN SINGAPORE BY J.P. MORGAN SECURITIES SINGAPORE PRIVATE LIMITED [MITA (P) NO. 213/05/2003].
THIS MATERIAL IS ISSUED AND DISTRIBUTED IN MALAYSIA BY J.P. MORGAN MALAYSIA SDN. BHD. (18146-X).
########### http://mailhost.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/warc/bse-l.html ############
https://lists.aegee.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0401&L=BSE-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=25337&X=14C6D9515C8B05410B
THE QUESTION OF CLUSTERING OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE
RICHARD F. RAUBERTAS1, PAUL BROWN2,, FRANÇOISE CATHALA3 and IVOR BROWN4
1Division of Biostatistics, University of Rochester Rochester, NY 2Laboratoire of CNS Studies, NINCDS, NIH Bethesda, MD 3Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hópital de Ia Salpetriere Paris, France 4Engineering Division, H.R.B. Singer Co. Lanham, MD
Send reprint requests to: Dr. Paul Brown, Building 3G, Room 5B21, NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Raubertas, R. F., P. Brown (NINCDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892), F. Cathala, and I. Brown. The question of clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Am J Epidemiol 1989;129:146–54.
Clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been reported in several countries. The authors review these reports, and they describe their statistical analysis of clustering among 329 cases that died In France during 1968–1982. Paris was found to have a much higher case rate than the rest of France, white some large areas In the north and west had remarkably few cases relative to their populations. No rural clusters were identified. A number of explanations for regional variations in case rates are possible, including population characteristics and case finding artifacts. Based on their results and those of other studies, the authors conclude that the strongest evidence for clustering of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is familial and ethnic, rather than geographic.
Creufeldt-Jakob syndrome; space-time clustering
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/129/1/146?ijkey=50059a12d834aa143ff774d15f38881ef24a2fcd&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Subject: cjd cluster IDAHO, another 'fluke', another mad cow cjd cover up in the USA
Date: March 11, 2006 at 8:30 pm PST
In Reply to: MAD COW USA JUNK SCIENCE PR COMING OUT BEFORE RECENT SUSPECT BSE CASE EVEN CONFIRMED i.e. preparing for the storm posted
by TSS on March 11, 2006 at 7:31 pm:
Subject: another cjd cluster, another 'fluke', another mad cow cjd cover up in the USA Date: August 16, 2005 at 6:23 am PST
Brain-disease deaths investigated Idaho seeks link in 5 rare cases By Adam Tanner, Reuters August 16, 2005
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- In late May, Marjorie Skinner played golf well enough to place fourth in a Memorial Day weekend tournament. Yet within weeks, the previously vibrant retiree started losing her ability to speak.
By the time her family buried her Friday, she was the fifth suspected victim in the same sparsely populated area of Idaho of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain-wasting disease that typically afflicts only one in a million people.
As word of the latest death spread yesterday, local and federal health specialists sifted through clues about an illness different from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.
''Five [cases] in one valley is pretty serious," said Sue Skinner, Marjorie's daughter-in-law. ''It's a grave concern in our family."
The mystery has deepened in recent weeks. At the end of May, another elderly woman died of the incurable disease involving a malformed protein, or prion, that kills brain cells. After that, health officials learned of three other suspected cases, including one CJD death in February that was reported only last month.
''Is what is happening in Idaho an anomaly, a statistical fluke? That is possible," said Ermias Belay, a top CJD expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who is helping advise officials in Idaho. ''But once it exceeds 1.5 or 2 per million, you start asking questions."
''If they are all confirmed, it could be odd," he said.
In a year, the United States typically has fewer than 300 CJD cases, which mete out rapid death to the elderly, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In Twin Falls, Cheryle Becker, epidemiology manager for Idaho's South Central District Health, is going to families with detailed questionnaires aimed at finding the roots of a disease that could date back 30 years.
She asks about past travels, unusual hobbies, and dietary habits, including eating organ meats, brain, and venison.
''We're asking them if they've consumed elk," Becker said, adding that many people hunt venison in Idaho. ''We're not having many people say that they have."
Specialists said they do not expect to find a link to eating meat, although locals are asking whether there is any connection to the human variant of mad cow disease. ''It's very frightening to the community," said Cheryl Juntunen, director of the South Central District Health.
Two confirmed US cases of mad cow disease, one in a Washington state dairy animal in 2003 and the other in a Texas beef cow this year, have further heightened concern.
Health specialists have found few parallels among the women, all of European heritage. Four were Idaho natives, all had children, and none had experienced neurological disease.
One had spent time in Britain before the outbreak of mad cow disease there, officials said. Several husbands were involved in farming, as is commonplace in a rural farmland region.
''There are things that lead you to believe this is not variant CJD," Becker said.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/16/brain_disease_deaths_investigated/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+National+News
Questions linger in U.S. CJD cases
Published: Oct. 21, 2005 at 9:49 PM By STEVE MITCHELL, Senior Medical Correspondent
SNIP...
The NPDPSC did not respond to UPI's phone call requesting comment about the Idaho cases. The CDC referred UPI to Idaho officials.
Of the nine Idaho cases, three people have tested positive for a CJD-like illness, but officials are conducting further tests to determine whether the disease is sCJD. Two others tested negative and four were buried without autopsies.
The cases could just be a statistical fluke, but the state averages about 1.2 sCJD cases per year and has never had more than three in a single year. The disease is rare and generally is thought to occur at the rate of one case per million people.
Several CJD clusters in other states have far exceeded that rate, however. These included:
--southern New Jersey (2000-2003),
--Lehigh, Pa. (1986-90),
--Allentown, Pa. (1989-92),
--Tampa, Fla. (1996-97),
--Oregon (2001-02), and
--Nassau County, N.Y. (1999-2000).
Some of the clusters involved as many as 18 deaths, and ranged from a rate of four to eight cases per million people.
A group of J.P. Morgan analysts issued an advisory last year on the impact the clusters could have on the beef industry, and said that some of the cases could be due to vCJD.
"The existence of clusters raises the question of 'contamination' or 'infection,' and also raises the hypothesis that rather than cases of sCJD, these might have been cases of vCJD," the advisory said. "Given that sCJD occurs randomly in one out of 1 million cases, it is a statistical rarity to find an sCJD cluster -- let alone six."
If that assessment is accurate, another cluster in Idaho would be even more unlikely.
Another possibility is some of the Idaho cases could be due to chronic wasting disease, which is similar to mad cow disease and currently is epidemic among deer and elk in several states, including Idaho's neighbors Wyoming and Utah.
No human cases of CWD have ever been confirmed, but the disease has been shown to infect human cells in a lab dish. Also, a team of researchers led by Jason Bartz of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., report in the November issue of the Journal of Virology they had experimentally transmitted CWD to squirrel monkeys --the first reported transmission of CWD to primates.
If CWD is capable of infecting humans, it is unknown whether the resulting disease would resemble sCJD, vCJD or a novel disorder. If the disease looks like sCJD, cases could be going undetected or misdiagnosed.
SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2005/10/21/Questions-linger-in-US-CJD-cases/UPI-65761129945790/
RE- TAMPA FLORIDA CJD CLUSTER 1996 - 1997
HOW can one be accurate about a cluster of CJD when you cut the age limit of cjd surveillance off at 55 ?
sporadic CJD, and all strains there from, will spread via the medical and surgical arenas, no matter how old you are. so why the age limit if the goal is to stop further spreading and deaths and exposure there from, IF that is what the goal of surveillance is $$$nvCJD$$$ i.e. UKBSEnvCJD only myth, bought and paid for by your local industries responsible. ...TSS
We cooperate with our federal partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for closely investigating cases of CJD that occur in people less than 55 years of age. This age group is where experts feel nv-CJD is most likely to occur. We also take reports from medical providers and the public on clusters of disease.
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/htopics/popups/cjd.htm
The Case of the Cherry Hill Cluster
By D.T. Max Published: March 28, 2004
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/articles/The%20Case%20of%20the%20Cherry%20Hill%20Cluster.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/magazine/the-case-of-the-cherry-hill-cluster.html
results of state investigation = same old BSe
http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cjd2004.pdf
Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science, vol. 31, no. 2, 2001
Letter to the Editor:
A Cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease Patients from Nassau County, New York, USA
Debasis Adikari and Peter Farmer Department of Pathology, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York (received 13 January 2001, accepted 18 January 2001)
Keywords: Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, spongiform encephalopathy, prion, disease cluster Dear Editor
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) is a rare and transmissible neurological disorder, which has been increasing in frequency in the United States over the past two decades [1]. CJD is a spongiform encephalopathy characterized by a conformational change of prion protein [2]. The death rate for CJD in the USA is 0.9 per million [1].
We report 7 cases of CJD from North Shore University Hospital, a community-based teaching institution that serves Nassau County on Long Island, NY. These cases were diagnosed and died during the 12-mo period from mid-June 1999 to midJune 2000. The estimated population of Nassau County in 1997 was 1,281,500, according to the New York State Department of Health [3]. These data suggest a CJD death rate in Nassau County of 5.5 per million, which is approximately 6 times the national rate. During the previous 1-yr period, no case of CJD was diagnosed in our laboratory.
The diagnosis of CJD in the 7 cases was based on pathological examinations performed by at least 2 pathologists. Three cases were confirmed by brain biopsy and 4 were diagnosed at autopsy. In 1 case, CJD was not suspected during life. Pertinent data are summarized in Table 1. The patients’ clinical histories were significant for rapidly deteriorating higher cortical functions, with confusion, speech disorders, nystagmus, ataxia, and/or myoclonus. Only 1 patient had a family history of CJD.
The autopsied brains were grossly unremarkable. At microscopic examination, all specimens showed the pathological features of CJD, including spongy degeneration, loss of neurons, and gliosis in the cerebral cortex. The basal ganglia were also involved. No Kuru plaques or inflammatory changes were noted. The patients’ relatively advanced ages (median = 75 yr, range = 57 to 82 yr), the rapid couse of their disease (median = 8 wk; range = 2 to 10 wk), and the absence of Kuru plaques suggest that these cases represent classical CJD, as opposed to new variant CJD [2].
The authors are concerned that the number of CJD cases in our catchment area appears to have increased dramatically during the 12-mo period. There is no clustering of the patients in any particular neighborhood. While the causes for the apparent increase of CJD cases are unknown, enhanced alertness for the disease and early recognition of its symptoms may be possible explanations. The cluster of CJD patients ought to be investigated thoroughly, which is beyond the scope of this letter.
Address correspondence to Peter Farmer, M.D., Department of Pathology, North Shore University Hospital, 300 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030, USA; tel 516 562 3676; fax 516 562 4591. 0091-7370/01/0200/0211 $0.50; © 2001 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.
http://www.annclinlabsci.org/cgi/reprint/31/2/211.pdf
J Ky Med Assoc. 2004 Apr;102(4):163-70.
Analysis for space-time clustering of CJD cases, Kentucky, 1988-1997. Groenewold MR.
Louisville Metro Health Department, 400 East Gray Street, Louisville, KY 40201, USA.
Abstract Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of humans. It can be transmitted iatrogenically or inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. However, most cases (85%) of the disease are sporadic, occurring stochastically in approximately one person per million population. In 1996, a new, neuropathologically distinct variant of CJD was recognized in a group of unusually young patients who had apparently been infected by exposure to the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) via contaminated beef products. This prompted many countries, including the United States, to renew their surveillance for CJD to assess the possibility of other variant cases. Spatiotemporal aggregation of cases may indicate a common source of infection or some other shared risk factor. In order to assess the possibility of variant cases, death certificate data was used to examine the spatiotemporal patterns of CJD mortality in Kentucky over a ten-year period. Space-by-time clustering was assessed using Cluster 3.1 software. The findings of this study produced some evidence for a cluster of six cases in central Kentucky. Overall, however, there was little or no evidence to suggest the occurrence of variant or unconventionally acquired cases.
PMID: 15125303 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15125303
Final CJD test results in Woman died from Scjd
Wed Feb 1, 2006 09:09 71.248.143.249
Final CJD test results in Woman died from classic form of brain disease By Sandy Miller Times-News writer
TWIN FALLS -- Final test results on brain tissue have confirmed another Idaho woman died from the classic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
"Test results showed it was not the variant form of CJD," said Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, on Tuesday. The variant form of CJD is caused by eating meat from a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease.
Since January 2005, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has received nine reports of people -- seven women and two men -- diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- or CJD -- a fatal brain-wasting disease carried by prions, an abnormal form of protein in the bloodstream. Prions cause folding of normal protein in the brain, leading to brain damage. Symptoms include dementia and other neurological signs. Its victims usually die within four or five months after onset of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cases included four women from Twin Falls County, a woman from Minidoka County, a woman from Benewah County in northern Idaho, a woman from Bear Lake County in the southern corner of Idaho on the Utah border, a man from Elmore County and a man from Caribou County in southeastern Idaho.
Of the nine people in Idaho who have died, five had autopsies and their brain tissue was sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.
Of those five, three women -- two women from Twin Falls County and the woman from Benewah County -- tested positive for a prion disease, and final results on all three of them have now shown they died of classic CJD and not the variant form.
Two people, including the Elmore County man and a Twin Falls woman, tested negative for a prion disease.
Autopsies were not performed on the other four suspected CJD victims. However, a CDC neurologist has reviewed their medical records, Shanahan said.
The number of cases is highly unusual. Normally, there is one case of CJD per million people a year. Between 1984 and 2004, Idaho averaged 1.2 cases a year, Shanahan said. He said there was one year during that period when Idaho had three cases.
Because of their ages -- all of the victims except one were over the age of 60 -- health officials suspected they died of classic CJD and not the variant. However, the only way to confirm CJD is by testing brain tissue, according to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center.
Times-News writer Sandy Miller can be reached at 735-3264 or by e-mail at smiller@magicvalley.com.
Story published at magicvalley.com on Wednesday, February 01, 2006
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2006/02/01/news_localstate/news_local_state.3.txt
Is There A CJD Cluster In Roane County, Tennessee?
Posted on March 16, 2009 by Mad Cow Email
The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and saying in the meantime it is extremely unlikely that it is a human case of the disease known as 'mad cow.'
An early diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob has been made for one patient, one of 6-8 the state of Tennessee is likely to see this year.
The Centers for Disease Control identifies classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob as a degenerative disease of the nervous system, likely caused by normal prion proteins deforming into abnormal prion proteins. {The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease, more commonly known as 'mad cow' disease, is also a prion disease.}
The state's four cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob last year were all the classic disease.
One of those commenting said:
My grandmother passed away Feb 4, 2009 at home with CJD. She spent 3 weeks in ParkWest hospital before we recevied her diagnoses. And passed away ten days from the date she was diagnosed. She was 69 years old and from Roane County. Our family did have an autopsy done on her and we have recieved the first phase of it confirming she did have CJD. We have learned of a Man in Rockwood having it and a lady from Kingson in ParkWest with it now. This is a very rare disease and I do believe their has to be a link in Roane County causing it. This disease is horrible and devasting to the family. There is no treatment for it and it progesses very rapid. There is no stopping it or slowing it down once the patient gets it. My mother has contacted the CDC this morning.
And another:
Actually, my father in Roane County was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob last week. Our family was contacted by a lady whose mother passed away earlier this year of the same disease, also in Roane County. Furthermore, a family friend visited our house today and told us of yet another diagnosis of a citizen of Roane County, who is currently hospitalized in Knox County. This is devastating both for the families involved and for our county, and considering the statistical rarity of the disease, it seems very strange that three people residing within the same geographical area were diagnosed if the disease is, in fact, acting sporadically. This disease is a monster, and further investigation to identify a possible common link would be extremely beneficial.
Roane County is on I-40 in eastern Tennessee. Its farms and several small towns are home to about 52,000. Go here for the WBIR report.
http://www.madcowblog.com/2009/03/articles/mad-cow-updates/is-there-a-cjd-cluster-in-roane-county-tennessee/
NEWS
Scientists Try To Track Fatal Disease
International Expert Visits Area To Study Unusual Incidence Rate
by ANN WLAZELEK, The Morning Call September 27, 1990
The Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania may not have an official "cluster" of the rare and fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but an international authority believes the cases are worth studying regardless. Dr. Paul Brown, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health who studied CJD the past 15 years, came to Allentown yesterday because local doctors reported at least 13 cases -- three to six times the normal incidence -- since 1985. That appeared to be an excess, according to Brown, yet whether they are statistically significant or not depends on the denominators of time, space and other factors.
http://articles.mcall.com/1990-09-27/news/2751251_1_brain-disease-cjd-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease
NEWS
Human form of mad cow killed at least 18
By Ann Wlazelek Of The Morning Call January 18, 2004
Government officials say there is only one case of the human form of mad cow disease in the United States -- a young woman living in Florida who probably became infected by eating contaminated beef in Britain, where she lived for the first 12 years of her life. But, 13 years ago, medical specialists in the Lehigh Valley reported a rare cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or the human form of mad cow, that killed as many as 18 residents of Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe and Schuylkill counties between 1986 and 1990.
http://articles.mcall.com/2004-01-18/news/3527827_1_variant-cjd-cow-disease-form-of-mad-cow
CJD NE TEXAS CLUSTER
Julie Rawlings of the Texas Department of Health's main office in Austin said CJD was given "reportable" disease status by her agency in 1998, following "a cluster of CJD in northeast Texas" in 1997.
In '97, Rawlings said there were seven confirmed cases of CJD in her agency's Region IV, which extends to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, while being connected by Paris, Palestine and Carthage.
"We never found anything," Rawlings said about the concentration of cases in northeast Texas. "We asked enough questions to fill a 70-page questionnaire ... You name it, we probably asked it. Again, we didn't come up with anything significant."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/palestine41201.cfm
Singeltary family experience with CJD Listserve 22 May 98 Hello, my name is Terry S. Singeltary Sr. and on 12-14-97 my mother died of heidenhan variant CJD, she died a very hidious death. Next, on 12-14-96 exactly one year earlier,my neighbors' mother died from C.J.D. Ii have autopsies to confirm both cases.not to long after my mother had passed away,my neighbor called me and said that I needed to see something. He had been going through a box that he had come across of his mothers. Inside was a bottle of nutritional supplements called IPLEX; INGREDIANTS;VACUUM DRIED BOVINE BRAIN,BONE MEAL,BOVINE EYE,VEAL BONE,BOVINE LIVER POWDER,BOVINE ADRENAL,VACUUM DRIED BOVINE KIDNEY,AND VACUUM DRIED PORCINE STOMACH, it's a cow in a pill. Now this woman taking these pills,died of C.J.D.there was a big article in the Galveston Daily News about all of this. I called the Texas Dept. Of Health and they came and got the pills the next day. Julie Rawlings at the texas dept. of health told me last week that the manufacturer has clammed up on them and will not cooperate anymore. They are referring all matters to their lawyers now.how can this be? Why doesn't the federal government intervEne?
Since the story came out in the galv. news on april 27,1998.a girl called me and told me of her father dying in late 94 or early 95 of C.J.D. in galveston. She told me that my mothers doctor was also her fathers doctor.now my mothers doctor would always mention the OTHER CASE but that's as far as it went.NOW i know why,her father was a BUTCHER AT A MEAT MARKET IN GALVESTON UNTIL HE RETIRED.
Makes me wonder? Did mom ever eat any beef that had come from that meat market in the last 30 or 40 years? MADCOW is here and you can call it whatever you want to. I saw it, my mother died from it. At times she would jerk so bad it would take 3 of us to hold her down.10 weeks start to finish,and she was gone.this disease that they claim is a different disease in younger folks (nvcjd) is the same damn thing. Just because it last longer and the plaques are a little more extreme,could it not be just a more extreme case of C.J.D. any young person with any disease will last longer than a older person with the same disease, because their body and organs are much younger and healthier.
The manufacturer of IPLEX is Standard Process Inc., Palmyra, Wisconsin.1-800-558-8740. I hope you find some interest in this.if you need more details,please don't hesitate to contact me."
With thanks,
Terry S. Singeltary
Texas cluster web site 21 May 98 Mark V. Gregg 512-458-7677 fax 512-458-7616 Director, Public Health Professional Education Texas Department of Health 1100 West 49th Street T-803 Austin, Texas 78756
"We've developed a CJD Web page here at the Texas Department of Health. In addition to some general information, the page links to the CDC's CJD page as well as a 1996 issue of our biweekly morbidity and mortality newsletter, the Disease Prevention News, which is also available on the Web. Our Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance (IDEAS) Division is currently investigating what we believe to be a cluster of CJD in a small area in East Texas. The Division's number is on the Web page if you wanted to follow up with specifics."
http://www.mad-cow.org/mid_may98.html#aaa
http://www.fortunecity.com/healthclub/cpr/798/terry.htm
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Northeast Texas,
J.A. Rawlings,*1 K.A. Hendricks1, O.M. Nuno1, D.A. Brown1, D.A. Evans2, Texas Department of Health, 1Austin and 2Tyler, Texas
Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, is caused by prions composed of proteinaceous material devoid of nucleic acid. CJD occurs sporadically (generally 1 case/1,000,000 population per year) in older patients (average age of 65) and is characterized by rapidly progressive dementia, accompanied by severe muscle spasms and incoordination. Death usually occurs within 3 to 12 months (average 7 months). CJD activity in Texas, which has a population of nearly 19 million, appeared to be typical. The statewide death rate for 1995 and 1996 was just under 1/1,000,000. In April of 1997, the Texas Department of Health became aware of an increased number of possible CJD cases in a 23-county area of NE Texas with a population of just over one million. After review of medical and pathology records, four patients were identified with definite classic CJD and three were identified with probable CJD. Dates of death for the eight patients were from April, 1996 through mid-July 1997. The patients were from 46 through 65 years of age; four were male and three were female. A case-control study to identify risks for CJD in NE Texas has been initiated.
http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/tse/Rawlings.htm
North American Equity Research
New York
13 January 2004
BSE (Mad Cow) Update:
Do Reports of sCJD Clusters Matter?
SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2007/12/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-surveillance.html
Friday, October 23, 2009
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Texas Data for Reporting Years 2000-2008
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2009/10/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-surveillance.html
POTENTIAL CJD CLUSTER IN 3 MANITOBANS, another coincidence of more spontaneous BSe
Date: December 8, 2006 at 7:29 am PST Curler among 3 Manitobans suspected of having CJD Last Updated: Friday, December 8, 2006 9:05 AM ET
CBC News Three Manitobans — including a prominent men's curler — are suspected of having the brain-wasting disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
Doctors from the Brandon Regional Health Authority have referred three suspected cases of CJD for further testing. They include Neil Andrews, 58, a two-time senior provincial curling champion from Brandon.
Dr. Charles Penner said he doesn't believe the cases are linked, but added that a cluster of cases is even rarer than CJD itself.
As of Nov. 1, six cases of CJD have been reported in Canada this year, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. Since 1997, 720 cases of the degenerative and fatal disease have been referred to the agency.
Andrews was diagnosed with a suspected case of CJD in September, after he had trouble keeping his balance while curling. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., later told him he likely had CJD.
Earlier this week, a hospital in London, Ont., suspended surgeries for two days when one neurosurgery patient was suspected of having CJD. Preliminary test results came back negative on Tuesday.
About 30 cases of "classical" CJD are diagnosed in Canada every year.
It's the more common, sporadic of two types of CJD, which occurs spontaneously, sometimes because the disease is hereditary. Less than one per cent of the time, it is contracted through hospital or medical procedures.
The second type, variant CJD, is associated with mad-cow disease.
With files from the Canadian Press
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2006/12/08/mba-cjd.html
Human version of mad cow hits Manitoba Three cases suspected from same area in province
The Canadian Press Published: Friday, December 08, 2006 BRANDON, Man. - Three people in Manitoba, including prominent provincial curler Neil Andrews, are suspected of being infected with a degenerative and fatal brain disease, health officials confirmed Thursday.
Doctors from the Brandon Health Region said they have referred three suspected cases of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, or CJD, for further testing.
CJD infects about one person in every million.
The facts on CJD Q&A about mad cow and CJD Mad cow protein may play role in diabetes More Body & Health news
Dr. Charles Penner, vice-president of medical services for the Brandon Regional Health Authority, doesn't believe the cases are linked, although a cluster of cases is even rarer than the disease.
"For the province to have three cases in one corner of the province, I suppose that would be unusual," he said.
Andrews, a two-time senior provincial men's curling champion, was actually diagnosed with a suspected case of CJD in September. Andrews, 58, noticed something was wrong when he had trouble keeping his balance during his curling delivery.
After a weeklong stay at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., doctors told him he likely had CJD.
"(The curlers) knew I couldn't curl and some of them thought that before," he said, laughing, while at a curling club in Brandon in October. "And almost every guy took the time and stopped and talked to me and talked to me openly about the disease and that was good.
"They tried to understand. I'm one of the unfortunate ones who's going to die but they considered themselves lucky."
Typically, one in three suspected cases turns out to be classical CJD, which can lead to rapid brain deterioration, dementia and mobility trouble.
Unlike variant CJD, which has been linked to beef contaminated by mad cow disease, classical CJD cases most often appear sporadically and affect people between 45 and 75. A total of 14 confirmed cases has been reported in Manitoba in the last decade.
Doctors use MRI scans and spinal taps to test for the presence of an abnormal protein to help diagnose a suspected case. But physicians can't confirm anything until an autopsy on brain tissue is performed.
Most people infected with CJD die within a year of the onset of symptoms.
Dr. Michael Coulthard, director of host genetics and prion disease at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, said the results of the suspected case are still pending. He said there has only been one cluster of cases reported worldwide -- in Switzerland -- in the last five years.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=5ef5f015-0f75-45f1-aac7-c9dd939eb85a&k=66922
CJD Transmission in Canada
There is documentation of six cases in Ontario (five deaths and one diagnosed case) recorded between April 1989 and October 1990.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/96vol22/dr2208ea-eng.php
STATEMENT ON A VARIANT CJD FAMILY CLUSTER
Prof Robert G Will,NCJDSU 25th September 2008r.g.will@ed.a c.uk
Three cases of pathologically confirmed variant CJD have been identified in Spain in recent years, including a man in his early 40s who died earlier this year. The clinical illness in this individual was typical of variant CJD, including the appearances on the MRI brain scan.
A few months ago his mother, who was in her 60s, developed a rapidly progressive neurological illness and died about 5 months from the onset of this illness. An MRI brain scan showed appearances suggestive of variant CJD and preliminary results from post-mortem examination suggest that the suspected diagnosis of variant CJD is correct. Further results, which may confirm this diagnosis, should be available within a few days.
Since 1994 there have been 167 cases of variant CJD in the UK, 23 cases in France and 15 cases in other countries, excluding Spain. The occurrence of variant CJD in more than one member of the same family has not been seen before and it has been the general view that family members of variant CJD cases are not themselves at greater risk of developing this condition. This raises the question as to why two cases of variant CJD have now been found in a family in Spain. There is no evidence of a genetic form of CJD in these Spanish cases and preliminary investigation has not shown any risk of CJD through medical or surgical treatment.
There is no evidence of any risk of transmission of CJD through direct personal contact. The mother and son lived in an area of Spain in which BSE has been found and it is possible that direct consumption of material with high levels of BSE infection may have been the source of the infection. In the UK and other countries it is believed that processed bovine tissues were the most likely source of BSE infection and it is possible that different forms of exposure to BSE infection may explain the occurrence of variant CJD in two family members in Spain and not elsewhere.
This, however, is uncertain and public health policies in relation to variant CJD may have to be reviewed in the light of these two cases in Spain.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6224550/Memorandum-on-a-Variant-CJD-Family-Cluster
Brain Advance Access originally published online on November 28, 2008 Brain 2009 132(2):493-501; doi:10.1093/brain/awn303
The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Enhanced geographically restricted surveillance simulates sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cluster
Genevieve M. Klug1,5,*, Handan Wand2,*, Alison Boyd1,5, Matthew Law2, Scott Whyte3,4, John Kaldor2, Colin L. Masters1,5 and Steven Collins1,5
1 Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 2 National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 3 North Sydney and Central Coast Area Health, New South Wales, Australia 4 The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 5 The Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence to: Steven J. Collins, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia E-mail: stevenjc@unimelb.edu.au
snip...
Although our strongest suspicion is that the managing clinicians in the Cluster 1 area were well-primed to investigate and confirm CJD cases, it remains possible that other factors unrelated to enhanced surveillance may have contributed to, or explain, the increased number of sCJD in the region. It is conceivable that the cluster could have occurred by chance alone, as apparent clusters are inherent in randomness. This has been seen previously in Australia (Collins et al., 2002a) and with variant CJD in the United Kingdom (Cousens et al., 1999). In Australia, a cluster of six cases in a rural city was identified between 1988 and 2000 and was concluded to have been a chance occurrence. Since this time, no further cases have been confirmed in the area (personal communication, S. Collins) which supports the initial conclusion. In this study, our analysis of case records did not support a definite or likely instance of causal transmission linkage between any cases; however, it cannot be completely dismissed that the Registry's case record details may be incomplete or influenced by recall error from those completing case questionnaires. This leaves the possibility that some of the excess cases may have arisen through covert transmission events. A further limitation of the cluster cohort is the low proportion of cases with complete PRNP genetic analysis, thereby limiting our ability to rule out the possibility of an underlying genetic aetiology in some cases. Finally, a comparison of the age groups of NSW and the Cluster 1 area revealed a small but significant difference between the age structures of the areas with a trend towards an older age population in Cluster 1. Since the disease is age-dependent, it could be speculated that the higher rate simply reflected the older age population. We are confident this is not the explanation given that age-adjustment did not alter the finding that there were significantly more cases of sCJD than expected in Cluster 1.
In conclusion, we believe that vigilant and motivated managing clinicians in a geographically circumscribed area of NSW evinced a sustained higher level of clinical awareness for the broad phenotypic spectrum of CJD with reliable referral of suspect cases for further investigation. In addition, these physicians established and maintained a well coordinated and active approach to suspect CJD autopsy. The combination of these factors translated into a higher intensity of surveillance at approximately twice the rate per population observed for the entire state, culminating in twice the incidence of sCJD at around 2.28 cases/million population/year. The hypothesis that intensity of surveillance for rare disorders such as sCJD can be quantified and correlates positively with disease incidence deserves further exploration and may prove to be an important insight into the varying incidence rates over periods of time within individual nations and between different countries, particularly in light of declining variant and iatrogenic CJD case numbers and a potential waning of awareness of CJD in the years to come. This type of improved understanding could provide strategies to maintain optimal national and potentially global surveillance.
snip....
full text ;
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/132/2/493
Ann Neurol. 2002 Jul;52(1):115-8.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cluster in an Australian rural city. Collins S, Boyd A, Fletcher A, Kaldor J, Hill A, Farish S, McLean C, Ansari Z, Smith M, Masters CL.
Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry and Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. stevencj@unimelb.edu.au
Abstract Through the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, 6 pathologically confirmed sporadic cases were recognized over a 13-year period in persons who had been long-term residents of a moderate-sized rural city, whereas the expected number was 0.923. An extensive investigation could not find any point-source or case-to-case transmission links. This occurrence is highly statistically significant (p = 0.0027) when viewed in isolation and remains significant (p < p =" 0.001)." view="long&pmid=" risk =" 2.28," p =" 0.021)." aktion="ShowPDF&ArtikelNr=" ausgabe="237323&ProduktNr=" filename="000126916.pdf">doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)74351-8Cite or Link Using DOI Cluster of vCJD cases in Kent and its importance Original TextR Salmon a, CEM Hillier a Sir S N Cousens and colleagues1 conclude that “the reported cluster of variant CJD cases in Kent is most probably a chance finding”. This conclusion is made on the basis that, despite a statistical excess of cases based on the assumption of a Poisson distribution, when the UK population is divided up into 36 equal groups of 1·5 million persons (the population of Kent), and 26 cases of variant CJD are allocated randomly to one of these 36 groups, over 10 000 computer simulations, four or more cases occurred within the same group in 18% of simulations. This methodology is a little like a roulette player who, having backed a given square to come up four or more times, expects to be paid if any single square comes up four or more times.
The justification would be that there is nothing special about this area (Kent), compared with any other. However, the initial epidemiological description of BSE gives the reported incidence as greater in southern England and greatest in Kent, leading Wilesmith and colleagues2 to suggest, as an explanation, “geographical variation in the market share of cattle feedstuffs between the compounders” and “a variation between companies in the use and inclusion rate of meat and bone meal”. Further, it was in Kent that some of the early cases of BSE among captive exotic ungulates occurred. Although Cousens and co-workers' conclusion that waterborne spread of infection is improbable is reasonable, it may be premature to rule out other factors that may have operated at a local level such as, for example, a locally distributed foodstuff. Only a local field investigation can elucidate this possibility. Furthermore, this needs to be an investigation tailored to the hypothesis under consideration at a local level, rather than, as seems to have been done, merely abstracting information from the national case control study of CJD. To expect a local consultant in communicable disease control to have the time or resources to undertake such a study may well be unrealistic. However, it would be an appropriate task for a national centre, such as the CJD Surveillance Unit, since any positive findings would have national implications and a negative investigation would offer some direct reassurance and complement the approach that Cousens and colleagues take.
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)74351-8/fulltext?version=printerFriendly
I helped Jonathan Leaky of the Sunday London Times track down part of that Queniborough cluster source. ...TSS
Mad cow disease: Could it be here?
Man's stubborn crusade attracts experts notice
August 5, 2001T
he Houston Chronicle by Carol Christian
snip...
Science and environment writer Jonathan Leake of the Sunday Times in London said Singeltary has helped him track down families of people with CJD along with academic research papers.
"I strongly suspect he is right in thinking the USA has had BSE cases," Leake said by e-mail.
"The American government is making the same mistake as the British in putting the short-term commercial interests of its farmers before health considerations," he added.
"It should start formal and widespread testing of cattle plus compulsory autopsies for all human CJD victims at the state's expense. If there is BSE, then leaving it to spread will kill people -- and that would eventually destroy the industry, too."
snip...SEE FULL TEXT ;
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/crusade8501.cfm
Knacker's yard link to Queniborough nvCJD cluster
Sun, 13 Aug 2000 Jonathan Leake and Dipesh Gadher
Sunday Times Additional reporting: Graham Hind
BRITAIN'S worst outbreak of the human form of mad-cow disease may be linked to a nearby knacker's yard that sold meat from diseased animals. The yard operated just eight miles from Queniborough, the Leicestershire village where health officials are investigating the first known cluster of CJD cases.
Three people who spent time in the village died from CJD in 1998, and a fourth person is suspected of having the degenerative brain disease. Another victim lived just three miles away.
The possible link to the knacker's yard - which recycled animals unfit for human consumption into pet food and other products - dates back 20 years, to about the time when scientists now believe the BSE epidemic may have begun.
Two meat traders from Bedfordshire were convicted in 1982 of buying unapproved beef from W E Mason & Sons of Wigston, near Leicester, and selling it to an unsuspecting butcher in Hertfordshire.
Last week officials seized council documents and court reports relating to the company to determine whether any unfit meat may have entered the human food chain locally.
"We have had a very useful series of conversations about this with Oadby and Wigston council," said Philip Monk, a consultant in communicable disease control at Leicestershire health authority, who is heading the Queniborough investigation. "I am ruling nothing in and nothing out. Anything we have that is potentially helpful in explaining local meat trading practices has to be examined."
The case heard by Leicester magistrates in 1982 was the culmination of Operation Meat Hook, a joint investigation between detectives and environmental health officers from three counties.
The teams covertly observed Peter Fletcher, a partner in a wholesale butcher's business near Dunstable, on four occasions in 1980 when he visited Leonard Mason, the yard's owner. He loaded beef carcasses from the yard into an un-marked van, which had been contaminated by a cow's head "fouled by stomach contents", according to evidence given in court. One of the carcasses was later found to have been infected with pleurisy.
Fletcher marked the meat with a fake inspector's stamp, and then left it with a retail butcher near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
"A knacker's yard may, and frequently will, deal with diseased cattle," the prosecutor had told an earlier hearing. "Meat may be partly decomposed and contaminated. Disease is rife in such premises and could include anthrax and tuberculosis."
Fletcher was jailed for three months and fined ?500. His partner, Francis Fensome, received a suspended prison sentence. Mason was cleared after telling the court that he had been told the meat was to be used to feed animals at Whipsnade zoo [site of two cheetah BSE fatalities -- webmaster]
The knacker's yard, which had been run by the Mason family since 1947, was closed the same year and now stands derelict. Mason has since died.
Last week his brother, Jack Mason, said: "I am confident there is no connection with us and the outbreak in Queniborough. Most of the meat went to zoos. Any meat that was sold locally went to dog owners as pet food."
There is no proof that Mason dealt in cattle infected with BSE, which was not recognised at the time. But such yards commonly dealt in "downer" cows - those displaying symptoms of illness - so any animals that did have BSE were likely to have ended up in such places.
The Queniborough inquiry team is also examining slaughtering techniques at Leicestershire abattoirs and childhood eating habits of those who grew up in the village, although school meals have been ruled out as a possible cause of the CJD outbreak.
Arthur Beyless lost his daughter, Pamela, 24, a bank worker, to the disease after a two-year struggle for survival. Although the Beylesses live in nearby Glenfield, Pamela regularly visited her grandparents in Queniborough and the family often bought meat from Ian Bramley, the village butcher, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beyless said: "On one occasion I was buying some meat when Ian told me he'd got it for 'a good deal'. It does make you wonder when you consider this theory about the knacker's yard. This disease is something that might never have happened if people weren't always grasping for that last penny."
The other two named victims with links to Queniborough are Stacey Robinson, 19, who lived there for 12 years before moving to another part of the county, and Glen Day, 34, who worked on a farm in the area. He regularly ate at the Horse and Groom pub, which was supplied with meat by Bramley.
Bramley died in a car crash. His stepmother, Hazel Bramley, said she knew nothing about Mason's yard. "We bought our meat directly from local farmers," she said. "The animals were slaughtered in Leicester and delivered to us. I don't know anything about this place in Wigston."
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/aug00_late_news.html#aaa
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/jul00_dont_eat_sheep.html#hhh
18 Jun 00 - CJD - Risk of CJD is higher in north Jonathan Leake
Sunday Times ... Sunday 18 June 2000
Northerners could be at several times more risk from variant CJD , the human form of "mad cow" disease, than those living in the Midlands and south, a study by government scientists has found, writes.
The research, carried out by the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Surveillance Unit, also shows that the rate of incidence of the disease, which is always fatal, is rising across Britain .
The figures remain too low to estimate accurately how many people will ultimately be affected. Estimates range from hundreds to many thousands .
Variations in the incidence of the disease are a matter of deep concern . In the north of England - north of Manchester and including Yorkshire and Humberside - there were 3.14 cases per million people over the five years to 1999. Scotland had the second highest rate at 2.98 cases per million .
The West Midlands emerged as the safest place with just 0.36 cases per million. East Anglia and the south experienced, respectively, 0.93 and 1.37 cases per
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news8.html
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news8.html
#18 Jun 00 - CJD - Risk of CJD is higher in north
http://www.mad-cow.org/UKCJD/CJD_news9.html
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/jul00_late_news.html#aaa
Knacker's yard link to Queniborough nvCJD cluster
Sun, 13 Aug 2000 Jonathan Leake and Dipesh Gadher Sunday Times Additional reporting: Graham Hind
BRITAIN'S worst outbreak of the human form of mad-cow disease may be linked to a nearby knacker's yard that sold meat from diseased animals. The yard operated just eight miles from Queniborough, the Leicestershire village where health officials are investigating the first known cluster of CJD cases. Three people who spent time in the village died from CJD in 1998, and a fourth person is suspected of having the degenerative brain disease. Another victim lived just three miles away.
The possible link to the knacker's yard - which recycled animals unfit for human consumption into pet food and other products - dates back 20 years, to about the time when scientists now believe the BSE epidemic may have begun.
Two meat traders from Bedfordshire were convicted in 1982 of buying unapproved beef from W E Mason & Sons of Wigston, near Leicester, and selling it to an unsuspecting butcher in Hertfordshire.
Last week officials seized council documents and court reports relating to the company to determine whether any unfit meat may have entered the human food chain locally.
"We have had a very useful series of conversations about this with Oadby and Wigston council," said Philip Monk, a consultant in communicable disease control at Leicestershire health authority, who is heading the Queniborough investigation. "I am ruling nothing in and nothing out. Anything we have that is potentially helpful in explaining local meat trading practices has to be examined."
The case heard by Leicester magistrates in 1982 was the culmination of Operation Meat Hook, a joint investigation between detectives and environmental health officers from three counties.
The teams covertly observed Peter Fletcher, a partner in a wholesale butcher's business near Dunstable, on four occasions in 1980 when he visited Leonard Mason, the yard's owner. He loaded beef carcasses from the yard into an un-marked van, which had been contaminated by a cow's head "fouled by stomach contents", according to evidence given in court. One of the carcasses was later found to have been infected with pleurisy.
Fletcher marked the meat with a fake inspector's stamp, and then left it with a retail butcher near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
"A knacker's yard may, and frequently will, deal with diseased cattle," the prosecutor had told an earlier hearing. "Meat may be partly decomposed and contaminated. Disease is rife in such premises and could include anthrax and tuberculosis."
Fletcher was jailed for three months and fined ?500. His partner, Francis Fensome, received a suspended prison sentence. Mason was cleared after telling the court that he had been told the meat was to be used to feed animals at Whipsnade zoo [site of two cheetah BSE fatalities -- webmaster]
The knacker's yard, which had been run by the Mason family since 1947, was closed the same year and now stands derelict. Mason has since died.
Last week his brother, Jack Mason, said: "I am confident there is no connection with us and the outbreak in Queniborough. Most of the meat went to zoos. Any meat that was sold locally went to dog owners as pet food."
There is no proof that Mason dealt in cattle infected with BSE, which was not recognised at the time. But such yards commonly dealt in "downer" cows - those displaying symptoms of illness - so any animals that did have BSE were likely to have ended up in such places.
The Queniborough inquiry team is also examining slaughtering techniques at Leicestershire abattoirs and childhood eating habits of those who grew up in the village, although school meals have been ruled out as a possible cause of the CJD outbreak.
Arthur Beyless lost his daughter, Pamela, 24, a bank worker, to the disease after a two-year struggle for survival. Although the Beylesses live in nearby Glenfield, Pamela regularly visited her grandparents in Queniborough and the family often bought meat from Ian Bramley, the village butcher, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beyless said: "On one occasion I was buying some meat when Ian told me he'd got it for 'a good deal'. It does make you wonder when you consider this theory about the knacker's yard. This disease is something that might never have happened if people weren't always grasping for that last penny."
The other two named victims with links to Queniborough are Stacey Robinson, 19, who lived there for 12 years before moving to another part of the county, and Glen Day, 34, who worked on a farm in the area. He regularly ate at the Horse and Groom pub, which was supplied with meat by Bramley.
Bramley died in a car crash. His stepmother, Hazel Bramley, said she knew nothing about Mason's yard. "We bought our meat directly from local farmers," she said. "The animals were slaughtered in Leicester and delivered to us. I don't know anything about this place in Wigston."
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy: Epidemiological studies
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/
http://www.mad-cow.org/00/aug00_late_news.html#aaa
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/21/uk.cjd/
The Queniborough CJD cluster
New claims link CJD to water supply
http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/drink.html#water
http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/drink.html
2009 UPDATE WATER AND PRIONS
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/10/detection-of-protease-resistant-cervid.html
Eurosurveillance, Volume 5, Issue 12, 22 March 2001 Articles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citation style for this article: Report on Leicestershire vCJD cluster published. Euro Surveill. 2001;5(12):pii=1785. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1785 Date of submission: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Report on Leicestershire vCJD cluster published
The inquiry team at Leicestershire Health Authority has reported on the results of the investigation into the geographical cluster of five cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD) around the village of Queniborough. The investigators have concluded that the purchase and consumption of beef in the early 1980’s from butcher’s shops where the meat could have been contaminated with brain tissue from cattle affected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) provides a plausible explanation for the cluster (1). A case control study, in which relatives of the five cases and relatives of 30 age-matched controls were interviewed, found that cases were 15 times more likely than controls to have purchased and consumed beef from a butcher who removed brains from cattle (p = 0.0058, 95% C.I. for odds ratio 1.6 – 140). The two butchers linked to four of the five cases removed the brains from cattle that were slaughtered either by the butchers themselves or in a nearby small abattoir. Pithing rods were used during slaughtering, and the carcasses were cleaned by wiping rather than by hosing. Removal of the brain was difficult and messy and the meninges were often ruptured either at removal or by the pithing rod. This led to a risk of cross contamination of carcass meat with brain tissue. Reasons are also given as to why during the early 1980’s the cattle in mixed dairy-beef herds used for the local meat trade may have had higher levels of BSE agent at slaughter than cattle raised for beef alone.
The practice of removing and selling the brains of cattle as food was legal in the United Kingdom throughout the 1980’s. Since 1989 it has been illegal for cattle brains to be used for human consumption and since 1996 the whole head of cattle over six months must be disposed of in a slaughterhouse as specified risk material.
The current number of definite and probable cases of vCJD in the UK is 97 (2). Of these, seven are probable cases who are still alive. Although there are other geographical areas with more than one case, to date Queniborough is the only area where statistical analysis suggests the association between the cases is unlikely to have occurred by chance.
References : Bryant G, Monk P. Summary of the final report of the investigation into the North Leicestershire cluster of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Leicester: Leicestershire NHS Health Authority, 2001. Available online at
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1785
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/pn171.pdf
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1724
Tue, 8, Aug 2000 19:39:27 -0400
From: jonathan leake
Date: Tue, 8, Aug 2000 19:39:27 -0400
Subject: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY ......)
Sender: jonathan leake
To: BSE Terry Singletary
Message-ID: <200008081939_mc2-af13-1bc@compuserve.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by sys44.hou.wt.net id SAA15659 X-Mozilla-Status: 8007 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-UIDL: ed0acd360d74370a3e06000000000000
Hi Terry - this is Jonathan Leake here.
we're thinking of doing a story on the knackers yard meat issue - is there a link to Queniborough? Would you mind resending any info you have on this - I may have lost some of the stuff you sent.
Cd you send it to
jonathan.leake@suandy-times.co.uk
AND TO
dipesh.gadher@sunday-times.co.uk
- HE'S RESEARCHING THIS STORY FOR ME AS I'M AT A CONFERENCE
MANY THANKS FOR YOUR HELP - AND FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK YOU'VE BEEN DOING
snip...end...TSS
Re: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY )
Subject: Re: IN CONFIDENCE (I SMELL A STORY )
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 21:41:57 -0700
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: jonathan leake
Hello Jonathan,
yes, give me some time though. there is a shitstorm on CJD Voice, they let the Faillace's on the CJD Voice support group (TSE tainted sheep farmers) without telling anyone; and myself and other are pissed off to say the least. This was suppose to be a support group. i told them it would be like asking the Malboro Man on a Cancer List. But he is Dead. Maybe it struck a nerve.
Have you got the DFA 4, 5, and 7, i thought i read something about knackers or maybe babyfoods??? not sure. i can send to you. I am sure i have something in the GBR's for the states and the other countries, don't have time to read. you can read them at; http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/ssc/outcomeen.html#reports i will search as soon as i get time ....
kind regards, Terry
jonathan leake wrote:
Hi Terry - this is Jonathan Leake here. we're thinking of doing a story on the knackers yard meat issue - is there a link to Queniborough? Would you mind resending any info you have on this - I may have lost some of the stuff you sent. ...snip...END...TSS
Re: KNACKERS AND RENDERS
Subject: Re: KNACKERS AND RENDERS
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 16:04:14 ·0700
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: jonathan.leake@sunday-times.co.uk, dipesh.gadher@Sunday-times.co.uk
do you have access to the;
The Veterinary-Record, December 20/27, 1997 Papers and Articles Effect of rendering procedures on the scrapie agent D. M. Taylor, S.L. Woodgate, A.J. Fleetwood, R.J.G. Cawthorne it's about 6 or 7 pages. i do not have it scanned and it's fairly fine print, however good print. also the report; The Veterinary Record, March 2, 1991 Papers and Articles Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: epidemiological studies on the origin there is a good section of rendering; Survey of rendering processes, solvents etc (very detailed on temps and processes) can scan copy correct and paste, but it will take some time, or fax COLLECT to you. I'm running out of quarters fast, nobody paying me to do this, and i am on disablility. so the fax will have to be collect ... regards, Terry 1 of 1 8/13/00 1 :06 PM
end...TSS
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 23:27:10 +0000 (GMT)
From:
Subject: confidential
To: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
Okay, you need to know. You don't need to pass it on as nothing will come of it and there is not a damned thing anyone can do about it. Don't even hint at it as it will be denied and laughed at..........
USDA is gonna do as little as possible until there is actually a human case in the USA of the nvcjd........
if you want to move this thing along and shake the earth....then we gotta get the victims families to make sure whoever is doing the autopsy is credible, trustworthy, and a saint with the courage of Joan of Arc........
I am not kidding!!!! so, unless we get a human death from EXACTLY the same form with EXACTLY the same histopath lesions as seen in the UK nvcjd........
forget any action........it is ALL gonna be sporadic!!!
And, if there is a case.......there is gonna be every effort to link it to international travel, international food, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. They will go so far as to find out if a sex partner had ever traveled to the UK/europe, etc. etc. ....
It is gonna be a long, lonely, dangerous twisted journey to the truth. They have all the cards, all the money, and are willing to threaten and carry out those threats....
and this may be their biggest downfall.
=========================================
snip...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102161333/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1976/10/12004001.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20040823105233/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/10/00001001.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102172428/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/sc/seac17/tab03.pdf
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102193705/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m11b/tab01.pdf
snip...
ANOTHER CJD CONFIRMED IN IDAHO CLUSTER (Scjd) Wed Feb 1, 2006 08:07 71.248.143.249
BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like prion strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein
Emmanuel A. Asante, Jacqueline M. Linehan, Melanie Desbruslais, Susan Joiner, Ian Gowland, Andrew L. Wood, Julie Welch, Andrew F. Hill, Sarah E. Lloyd, Jonathan D.F. Wadsworth, and John Collinge1 MRC Prion Unit and Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, Institute of Neurology, University College, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK 1Corresponding author e-mail: j.collinge@prion.ucl.ac.ukReceived August 1, 2002; Revised September 24, 2002; Accepted October 17, 2002.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC136957/?tool=pubmed
CJD RISING SWITZERLAND
CJD is a predominantly sporadic disorder but can also occur as a dominantly inherited or infective condition. Only one of the 26 most recent confirmed cases was identified as carrying a disease related mutation of the PRNP gene, none had identifiable iatrogenic exposure, and none resembled variant CJD. Thus 25 of the 26 cases appear to be sporadic cases. Sporadic CJD is distributed worldwide with a reported incidence of about one in a million per year. Raised awareness of the disease in recent years could account for an increase in reported cases of CJD, although neither an increase in the average age of patients nor more frequent recognition of CJD amongst residents of nursing homes (where dementing illness is prevalent and misdiagnosis might be expected) were seen in the Swiss cases. Moreover, improved ascertainment as an explanation for the observed increase would imply levels of under-reporting in countries other than Switzerland, which appear implausible. The authors of the Lancet report suggest that the rise in cases might be due to some form of unidentified iatrogenic transmission or to exposure to a zoonotic source of infection, though cases do not resemble variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The ongoing surveillance of CJD in Switzerland and the rest of Europe is essential to monitor the situation to see if this rise is sustained in Switzerland, and if a similar rise occurs in other countries (see http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk).
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=1921
Prion data suggest BSE link to sporadic CJD Declan Butler
Predicting the number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in people as a result of transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has just got more difficult.Whereas it was thought that BSE only caused a new form of the disease called variant CJD (vCJD), a study in mice from a team led by John Collinge at University College London suggests that it may also cause a disease indistinguishable from the commonest form of classical, or 'sporadic', CJD (E.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6915/full/420450a.html
IF we look at sporadic incidence of CJD in UK from 1993 to 2003, the incidence rose from 37 in 1993 to 77 in 2003. THIS seems to show an increase to me? I do not understand the statement ;
However, in the period following the first published description of vCJD in 1996, there was no increasing trend in the reported annual number of U.K. sporadic CJD deaths (52).
IF we go further and look at some of the other documented BSE countries, you will the increase of sporadic CJD there as well ;
Canada from 2 to 25
France from 35 to 108
Germany 21+ to 96
Italy 27 to 76
http://www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk/sporadic.htm
Switzerland sporadic CJD ;
Swiss rise in CJD raises concerns over possible BSE link [LONDON] THE LANCET
Plaque attack: Swiss patients have spongiform patterns in the brain typical of sporadic CJD. The number of people dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has risen sharply in Switzerland -- sparking fears of a possible link with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
BSE is thought to be the cause of a distinctive form of the brain-wasting disease known as variant CJD. The Swiss cases, in contrast, are standard 'sporadic' CJD. Each year between 1997 and 2000, no more than 11 Swiss people developed CJD. But 19 cases were reported in 2001, and seven were recorded in the first quarter of this year. This is some four times higher than the incidence elsewhere, reports a team led by Adriano Aguzzi of the University Hospital Zurich (M. Glatzel et al. Lancet 360, 139-141; 2002).
The increase could be a mere statistical blip, or it may be due to increased awareness of the disease leading to more diagnoses. More disturbing is the possibility that the cases are linked to the consumption of BSE-infected meat products -- which would mean that the BSE agent can cause two distinct forms of CJD.
Possible links between the Swiss CJD cases and BSE will now be explored by strain-typing experiments in which the disease is transmitted to mice. These tests will take at least a year to complete. "It's the best way to establish or exclude any suspected link," says Moira Bruce of the UK Institute for Animal Health's Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh.
======================================
Experiences in England and Switzerland -- two countries that discovered mad cow disease in their cattle -- have heightened concerns about the possibility some cases of sporadic CJD are due to consuming mad-cow-tainted beef. Both countries have reported increases in sporadic CJD since mad cow was first detected in British herds in 1986.
Switzerland discovered last year its CJD rate was twice that of any other country in the world. Switzerland had been seeing about eight to 11 cases per year from 1997 to 2000. Then the incidence more than doubled, to 19 cases in 2001 and 18 cases in 2002.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030721-102924-4786r
Mouse model sheds new light on human prion disease
snip...
Professor John Collinge said We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a result of BSE exposure, but some more recent cases may be the incidence of sporadic CJD has shown an upward trend in the UK over the last decade. While most of this apparent increase may be because doctors are now more aware of CJD and better at diagnosing it, serious consideration should be given to a proportion of this rise being BSE-related. Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic, has noted a sharp recent increase in sporadic CJD.
snip...
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/txt/index/public-interest/public-news-4/public-news_archive/public-news-archive_nov_dec_02/public-bse_and_sporadic_cjd.htm
Monday, May 19, 2008
SPORADIC CJD IN FARMERS, FARMERS WIVES, FROM FARMS WITH BSE HERD AND ABATTOIRS
http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/
Sunday, August 10, 2008
A New Prionopathy OR more of the same old BSe and sporadic CJD
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-prionopathy-or-more-of-same-old-bse.html
Epidemiologic implications of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a 19 year-old girl
Journal European Journal of Epidemiology Publisher Springer Netherlands ISSN 0393-2990 (Print) 1573-7284 (Online) Issue Volume 1, Number 1 / March, 1985
P. Brown1, F. Cathala2, R. Labauge3, M. Pages3, J. C. Alary3 and H. Baron
(1) Laboratory of CNS Studies, NINCDS, National Institutes of Health, 20205 Bethesda, Maryland, USA (2) Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France (3) Départment de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Montpellier, France
Abstract A histopathologically-verified, clinically typical case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is described in a 19 year-old girl. Only 3 previous cases of CJD have been reported in adolescents, and one of these was iatrogenically transmitted, while another was familial. Epidemiologic investigation of the present case excluded a familial component, and provided no evidence for iatrogenic or natural case-to-case transmission, or of other environmental sources of viral contamination. Young patients such as this one serve to emphasize the obscurity that still sourrounds the epidemiology of CJD, and invite serious reconsideration of the possibilities of transmission by undetected virus carriers, or of the agent as a natural resident of human cells, replication of which might be triggered by non-infective (e.g., traumatic or mutational) environmental events. Key words Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - Epidemiology
P. Brown1, F. Cathala2, R. Labauge3, M. Pages3, J. C. Alary3 and H. Baron
(1) Laboratory of CNS Studies, NINCDS, National Institutes of Health, 20205 Bethesda, Maryland, USA (2) Laboratoire de Neurovirologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France (3) Départment de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Montpellier, France
Abstract A histopathologically-verified, clinically typical case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is described in a 19 year-old girl. Only 3 previous cases of CJD have been reported in adolescents, and one of these was iatrogenically transmitted, while another was familial. Epidemiologic investigation of the present case excluded a familial component, and provided no evidence for iatrogenic or natural case-to-case transmission, or of other environmental sources of viral contamination. Young patients such as this one serve to emphasize the obscurity that still sourrounds the epidemiology of CJD, and invite serious reconsideration of the possibilities of transmission by undetected virus carriers, or of the agent as a natural resident of human cells, replication of which might be triggered by non-infective (e.g., traumatic or mutational) environmental events. Key words Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - Epidemiology
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j344470112792q50/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j344470112792q50/fulltext.pdf?page=1
2. Sporadic CJD normally occurs in people in their 50s and 60s although it can occur more rarely in younger age groups. Until this year the youngest case of sporadic CJD in the UK had been in a 34 year old. Other countries, howver, have reported sporadic CJD in teenagers. Those we know about are;
* in the USA, a 16 year old in 1978;
* in France, a 19 year old in 1982;
* in Canada, a 14 year old of UK origin in 1988;
* in Poland cases in people aged 19, 23, and 27 were identified in a retrospective study (published 1991), having been originally misdiagnosed with a viral encephalitis;
* Creutzfeldt's first patient in 1920 was aged 23.
full text ;
http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20081106132604/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1995/10/27013001.PDF
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. Published Online First: 23 May 2007. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.104570 © 2007 by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
Original articles
Sporadic creutzfeldt-jakob disease in two adolescents
K Murray 1, D L Ritchie 1, M Bruce 2, C A Young 3, M Doran 3, J W Ironside 4 and R G Will 4* 1 NationalCJD Surveillance Unit, United Kingdom 2 Neuropathogenesis Unit, United Kingdom 3 Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, United Kingdom 4 National CJD Surveillance Unit, United Kingdom
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: r.g.will@ed.ac.uk.
Accepted 15 April 2007
Abstract
Background: Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a condition predominantly affecting older age groups, with cases aged less than 45 years rare and an age at onset or death of less than 20 years exceptional.
Methods: Data from the systematic study of sporadic CJD in the UK are available from 1970 onwards. Clinical and pathological data are reviewed in order to identify atypical cases, including those at the extremes of the age range of sporadic CJD. Detailed analysis of atypical cases is undertaken and in selected cases laboratory transmission studies are carried out in order to provide information on the characteristics of the infectious agent.
Results: In the UK two cases of sporadic CJD in adolescents have been identified, dying aged 16 and 20 years. The first case predated the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the characteristics of the second case, including laboratory transmission studies, are consistent with a diagnosis of sporadic rather than variant CJD.
Conclusion: The cases in this report indicate that sporadic CJD can develop at a very young age, that variant CJD is not the only form of CJD occurring in this age group and that neuropathological examination is essential to accurate diagnosis of human prion disease.
http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/jnnp.2006.104570v1
http://cjdmadcowbaseoct2007.blogspot.com/2008/07/novel-human-disease-with-abnormal-prion.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
please note ;
Original Paper
Surgery and Risk of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Denmark and Sweden: Registry-Based Case-Control Studies Ignacio Mahillo-Fernandeza, Jesús de Pedro-Cuestaa, Maria José Bledaa, Mabel Cruzb, Kåre Mølbakc, Henning Laursend, Gerhard Falkenhorstc, Pablo Martínez-Martína, Åke Sidenb, on behalf of the EUROSURGYCJD Research Group
aDepartment of Applied Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid, Spain; bDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology Division, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; cDepartment of Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institute, and dNeuropathology Laboratory, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
Address of Corresponding Author
Neuroepidemiology 2008;31:229-240 (DOI: 10.1159/000163097)
Abstract
Background: Epidemiologic evidence of surgical transmission of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) remains controversial. Methods: From Danish and Swedish registries we selected 167 definite and probable sCJD cases (with onset between 1987 and 2003) and 3,059 controls (835 age-, sex-, and residence-matched, and 2,224 unmatched). Independent of case/control status, surgical histories were obtained from National Hospital Discharge Registries. Surgical procedures were categorized by body system group and lag time to onset of sCJD. Exposure frequencies were compared using logistic regression. Results: A history of any major surgery, conducted 20 years before sCJD onset, was more common in cases than both matched (OR = 2.44, 95% CI = 1.46-4.07) and unmatched controls (OR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.48-3.44). This observation was corroborated by a linear increase in risk per surgical discharge (OR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.13-2.18; OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.18-1.91). Surgery of various body systems, including peripheral vessels, digestive system and spleen, and female genital organs, was significantly associated with increased sCJD risk. Conclusions: A variety of major surgical procedures constitute a risk factor for sCJD following an incubation period of many years. A considerable number of sCJD cases may originate from health care-related accidental transmission.
Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel
snip...
Discussion Overall, the present study indicates that a considerable proportion of sCJD may constitute a health care-related disorder, accidentally transmitted during surgery. While this has been suggested before [7–10] , the present study is unique because of the unbiased assessment of exposure histories for decades before disease onset, randomly chosen controls, and strict lag time measurement. The lack of surgical history data prior to the establishment of the National Hospital Discharge Registries in the early 1970s and low statistical power preclude the assessment of early- in-life surgery or specific infrequent procedures. The main findings were supported by analyses including both MCs and UMCs. The UMCs were not essential for this study, but it was reassuring to learn that a similar study could be undertaken in another setting where it was impossible to sample MCs as a reference group.
snip...
Conflicting reports from previously published casecontrol studies regarding the association between surgery and sCJD may partially be explained by variations in the type of control subjects used and in exposure assessment [31] . Even though we did not find a significant association between surgery performed at any time predating 1 1 year before onset, our results are consistent with positive results for lifetime surgical history found in recent, large studies using community controls [7, 9, 10] . Like us, one study reports dose-response effects [7] . Hence, in accordance with these studies and other reports suggesting that some types of surgery, e.g. cataract surgery [32, 33] , might be performed as a consequence of early sCJD manifestations, it appears that surgery may constitute: (1) a risk factor of sCJD with a considerable time lag, and (2) a risk indicator with yet unknown causal links for specific types of (recent) surgery, possibly including coronary surgery.
What then are the potential implications for public health? Based on period-specific ORs of 1.44 (10–19 years) and 2.44 ( 6 20 years), and 22 and 19% exposed, unrepeated cases for each window, we estimate the population- attributable proportion to be 18%. This figure may constitute a considerable underestimation of the effect of lifetime surgical history on sCJD incidence, because in our study the ascertainment of exposure to surgery before the middle of the 1970s was compromised by the incompleteness of hospital discharge registries. In the UK, a positive lifetime surgical history was recorded from 1980 onwards in 58 and 59% of vCJD cases and controls, with median ages of 26 and 33 years [34] . Since the
majority of surgical interventions at such ages was not captured in our study, and our results suggest that the lower the age at surgery, the higher the risk, the figure of 35% proposed by Ward et al. [9] for the population-attributable risk of sCJD due to lifetime surgery in the UK would appear to be a conservative estimate for Denmark and Sweden.
While negative results have been reported for clustered surgical chains [35] , studies supporting the hypothesis of a frequent surgical transmission of sCJD might be a French cluster of multioperated cases [36] ; the high sCJD incidence in regions with a high incidence of genetic transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, potentially acting as a focus for point source epidemics, such as in the Spanish Basque Country [37] (http://www.isciii. es/htdocs/pdf/DatosRegistroCreutzfeldJacob.ppt), and occasional increases in CJD incidence in countries where iatrogenic transmission has been mentioned as a possible cause [38] .
To conclude, we provide evidence to indicate that surgery, acting with long incubation periods, has constituted a risk factor for sCJD in Sweden and Denmark. The associations may have implications for precautionary measures and surveillance.
http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=000163097
http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowPDF&ArtikelNr=000163097&Ausgabe=240333&ProduktNr=224263&filename=000163097.pdf
Cross infection control measures and the treatment of patients at risk of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in UK general dental practice
J. Bagg,1 C. P. Sweeney,2 K. M. Roy,3 T. Sharp,4 and A. Smith,5
Aims To determine the suitability of key infection control measures currently employed in UK dental practice for delivery of dental care to patients at risk of prion diseases.
Materials and methods Subjects: Five hundred dental surgeons currently registered with the General Dental Council of the UK.
Data collection: Structured postal questionnaire.
Analysis: Frequencies, cross-tabulations and chi-squared analysis. Results The valid response rate to the questionnaire was 69%. 33% of practices had no policy on general disinfection and sterilisation procedures. Only 10 of the 327 responding practices (3%) possessed a vacuum autoclave. 49% of dentists reported using the BDA medical history form but less than 25% asked the specific questions recommended by the BDA to identify patients at risk of iatrogenic or familial CJD. However, 63% of practitioners would refer such patients, if identified, to a secondary care facility. Of the 107 practitioners who were prepared to provide dental treatment, 75 (70%) would do so using routine infection control procedures.
Conclusions Most of the dental practices surveyed were not actively seeking to identify patients at risk of prion diseases. In many cases, recommended procedures for providing safe dental care for such patients were not in place.
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/185/1/Bagg[1].pdf
AFTER consumption and or exposure, then the pass it forward and or friendly fire begins ;
Thursday, May 27, 2010 Guidance for Industry: Revised Preventive Measures to Reduce Possible Risk of Transmission of CJD and vCJD by blood and blood products; Availability
[Federal Register: May 27, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 102)] [Notices] [Page 29768-29769] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr27my10-66]
http://vcjdtransfusion.blogspot.com/2010/05/guidance-for-industry-revised.html
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Current risk of iatrogenic Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in the UK: efficacy of available cleaning chemistries and reusability of neurosurgical instruments
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/05/current-risk-of-iatrogenic.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
ATYPICAL BSE MORE VIRULENT THAN C-BSE, USDA AND OIE ARE POISONING THE GLOBE LIKE THE U.K. DID $$$
To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.
http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2
14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)
18.173 page 189
Experimental Challenge of Cattle with H-type and L-type Atypical BSE
A. Buschmann1, U. Ziegler1, M. Keller1, R. Rogers2, B. Hills3, M.H. Groschup1. 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany, 2Health Canada, Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products & Food Branch, Ottawa, Canada, 3Health Canada, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Secretariat, Ottawa, Canada
Background: After the detection of two novel BSE forms designated H-type and L-type atypical BSE the question of the pathogenesis and the agent distribution of these two types in cattle was fully open. From initial studies of the brain pathology, it was already known that the anatomical distribution of L-type BSE differs from that of the classical type where the obex region in the brainstem always displays the highest PrPSc concentrations. In contrast in L-type BSE cases, the thalamus and frontal cortex regions showed the highest levels of the pathological prion protein, while the obex region was only weakly involved.
Methods:We performed intracranial inoculations of cattle (five and six per group) using 10%brainstemhomogenates of the two German H- and L-type atypical BSE isolates. The animals were inoculated under narcosis and then kept in a free-ranging stable under appropriate biosafety conditions.At least one animal per group was killed and sectioned in the preclinical stage and the remaining animals were kept until they developed clinical symptoms. The animals were examined for behavioural changes every four weeks throughout the experiment following a protocol that had been established during earlier BSE pathogenesis studies with classical BSE.
Results and Discussion: All animals of both groups developed clinical symptoms and had to be euthanized within 16 months. The clinical picture differed from that of classical BSE, as the earliest signs of illness were loss of body weight and depression. However, the animals later developed hind limb ataxia and hyperesthesia predominantly and the head. Analysis of brain samples from these animals confirmed the BSE infection and the atypical Western blot profile was maintained in all animals. Samples from these animals are now being examined in order to be able to describe the pathogenesis and agent distribution for these novel BSE types. Conclusions: A pilot study using a commercially avaialble BSE rapid test ELISA revealed an essential restriction of PrPSc to the central nervous system for both atypical BSE forms. A much more detailed analysis for PrPSc and infectivity is still ongoing.
http://www.isid.org/14th_icid/
http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/IMED2009_AbstrAuth.pdf
http://www.isid.org/publications/ICID_Archive.shtml
14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -
Final Abstract Number: ISE.114
Session: International Scientific Exchange
Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America
update October 2009
T. Singeltary
Bacliff, TX, USA
Background:
An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.
Methods:
12 years independent research of available data
Results:
I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.
Conclusion:
I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.
http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf
International Society for Infectious Diseases Web: http://www.isid.org/
I ask Professor Kong ;
Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment
''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''
Professor Kong reply ;
.....snip
''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete.
Thanks for your interest.''
Best regards,
Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA
END...TSS
P02.35
Molecular Features of the Protease-resistant Prion Protein (PrPres) in H-type BSE
Biacabe, A-G1; Jacobs, JG2; Gavier-Widén, D3; Vulin, J1; Langeveld, JPM2; Baron, TGM1 1AFSSA, France; 2CIDC-Lelystad, Netherlands; 3SVA, Sweden
Western blot analyses of PrPres accumulating in the brain of BSE-infected cattle have demonstrated 3 different molecular phenotypes regarding to the apparent molecular masses and glycoform ratios of PrPres bands. We initially described isolates (H-type BSE) essentially characterized by higher PrPres molecular mass and decreased levels of the diglycosylated PrPres band, in contrast to the classical type of BSE. This type is also distinct from another BSE phenotype named L-type BSE, or also BASE (for Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy), mainly characterized by a low representation of the diglycosylated PrPres band as well as a lower PrPres molecular mass. Retrospective molecular studies in France of all available BSE cases older than 8 years old and of part of the other cases identified since the beginning of the exhaustive surveillance of the disease in 20001 allowed to identify 7 H-type BSE cases, among 594 BSE cases that could be classified as classical, L- or H-type BSE. By Western blot analysis of H-type PrPres, we described a remarkable specific feature with antibodies raised against the C-terminal region of PrP that demonstrated the existence of a more C-terminal cleaved form of PrPres (named PrPres#2 ), in addition to the usual PrPres form (PrPres #1). In the unglycosylated form, PrPres #2 migrates at about 14 kDa, compared to 20 kDa for PrPres #1. The proportion of the PrPres#2 in cattle seems to by higher compared to the PrPres#1. Furthermore another PK–resistant fragment at about 7 kDa was detected by some more N-terminal antibodies and presumed to be the result of cleavages of both N- and C-terminal parts of PrP. These singular features were maintained after transmission of the disease to C57Bl/6 mice. The identification of these two additional PrPres fragments (PrPres #2 and 7kDa band) reminds features reported respectively in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS) syndrome in humans.
http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2007/abstract_book.pdf
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Atypical BSE in Cattle
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/03/atypical-bse-in-cattle-position-post.html
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
SEAC NEW RESULTS ON IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS (IBNC) FROM THE VETERINARY LABORATORIES AGENCY (VLA) SEAC 103/1
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/11/seac-new-results-on-idiopathic.html
NEW RESULTS ON IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS "All of the 15 cattle tested showed that the brains had abnormally accumulated PrP" 2009
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-results-on-idiopathic-brainstem.html
AND THE USDA ET AL KNEW IT TOO ;
""These 9,200 cases were different because brain tissue samples were preserved with formalin, which makes them suitable for only one type of test--immunohistochemistry, or IHC."
THIS WAS DONE FOR A REASON!
THE IHC test has been proven to be the LEAST LIKELY to detect BSE/TSE in the bovine, and these were probably from the most high risk cattle pool, the ones the USDA et al, SHOULD have been testing. ...TSS
USDA 2003
We have to be careful that we don't get so set in the way we do things that we forget to look for different emerging variations of disease. We've gotten away from collecting the whole brain in our systems. We're using the brain stem and we're looking in only one area. In Norway, they were doing a project and looking at cases of Scrapie, and they found this where they did not find lesions or PRP in the area of the obex. They found it in the cerebellum and the cerebrum. It's a good lesson for us. Ames had to go back and change the procedure for looking at Scrapie samples. In the USDA, we had routinely looked at all the sections of the brain, and then we got away from it. They've recently gone back. Dr. Keller: Tissues are routinely tested, based on which tissue provides an 'official' test result as recognized by APHIS.
Dr. Detwiler: That's on the slaughter. But on the clinical cases, aren't they still asking for the brain? But even on the slaughter, they're looking only at the brainstem. We may be missing certain things if we confine ourselves to one area.
snip.............
Dr. Detwiler: It seems a good idea, but I'm not aware of it. Another important thing to get across to the public is that the negatives do not guarantee absence of infectivity. The animal could be early in the disease and the incubation period. Even sample collection is so important. If you're not collecting the right area of the brain in sheep, or if collecting lymphoreticular tissue, and you don't get a good biopsy, you could miss the area with the PRP in it and come up with a negative test. There's a new, unusual form of Scrapie that's been detected in Norway. We have to be careful that we don't get so set in the way we do things that we forget to look for different emerging variations of disease. We've gotten away from collecting the whole brain in our systems. We're using the brain stem and we're looking in only one area. In Norway, they were doing a project and looking at cases of Scrapie, and they found this where they did not find lesions or PRP in the area of the obex. They found it in the cerebellum and the cerebrum. It's a good lesson for us. Ames had to go back and change the procedure for looking at Scrapie samples. In the USDA, we had routinely looked at all the sections of the brain, and then we got away from it. They've recently gone back.
Dr. Keller: Tissues are routinely tested, based on which tissue provides an 'official' test result as recognized by APHIS .
Dr. Detwiler: That's on the slaughter. But on the clinical cases, aren't they still asking for the brain? But even on the slaughter, they're looking only at the brainstem. We may be missing certain things if we confine ourselves to one area.
snip...
Completely Edited Version PRION ROUNDTABLE
Accomplished this day, Wednesday, December 11, 2003, Denver, Colorado
end...TSS
ONE FINAL COMMENT PLEASE, (i know this is long Dr. Freas but please bear with me)
THE USA is in a most unique situation, one of unknown circumstances with human and animal TSE. THE USA has the most documented TSE in different species to date, with substrains growing in those species (BSE/BASE in cattle and CWD in deer and elk, there is evidence here with different strains), and we know that sheep scrapie has over 20 strains of the typical scrapie with atypical scrapie documented and also BSE is very likely to have passed to sheep. all of which have been rendered and fed back to animals for human and animal consumption, a frightening scenario. WE do not know the outcome, and to play with human life around the globe with the very likely TSE tainted blood from the USA, in my opinion is like playing Russian roulette, of long duration, with potential long and enduring consequences, of which once done, cannot be undone.
These are the facts as i have come to know through daily and extensive research of TSE over 9 years, since 12/14/97. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but i do know to continue to believe in the ukbsenvcjd only theory of transmission to humans of only this one strain from only this one TSE from only this one part of the globe, will only lead to further failures, and needless exposure to humans from all strains of TSE, and possibly many more needless deaths from TSE via a multitude of proven routes and sources via many studies with primates and rodents and other species. ...
SNIP... SEE FULL TEXT
PAGE 1 STARTS ON PAGE 13, SKROLL TO PAGE 13...TSS
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=09000064801f3413&disposition=attachment&contentType=msw8
USA DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS AND TME
Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the farm died from TME.
snip...
The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or dead dairy cattle...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf
PLEASE be aware, for 4 years, the USDA fed our children all across the Nation dead stock downer cows, the most high risk cattle for BSE aka mad cow disease and other dangerous pathogens. who will watch our children for CJD for the next 5+ decades ???
SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM FROM DOWNER CATTLE UPDATE
http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2009/05/who-will-watch-children.html
http://downercattle.blogspot.com/
WHAT MAD COW FEED BAN ???
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant Feed/Adulterated/Misbranded Rangen Inc 2/11/10 USA
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-proteins-prohibited-in-ruminant.html
Monday, March 1, 2010
ANIMAL PROTEIN I.E. MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE A REVIEW 2010
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/animal-protien-ie-mad-cow-feed-in.html
Terry S. Singeltary Sr. (Submitted question): Monday, April 5, 2010
Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSE April 5, 2010
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-on-feed-enforcement-activities.html
Saturday, June 12, 2010
PUBLICATION REQUEST AND FOIA REQUEST Project Number: 3625-32000-086-05 Study of Atypical Bse
http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/06/publication-request-and-foia-request.html
Archive Number 20100405.1091 Published Date 05-APR-2010
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Prion disease update 1010 (04)
snip...
[Terry S. Singeltary Sr. has added the following comment:
"According to the World Health Organisation, the future public health threat of vCJD in the UK and Europe and potentially the rest of the world is of concern and currently unquantifiable. However, the possibility of a significant and geographically diverse vCJD epidemic occurring over the next few decades cannot be dismissed
The key word here is diverse. What does diverse mean? If USA scrapie transmitted to USA bovine does not produce pathology as the UK c-BSE, then why would CJD from there look like UK vCJD?"
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:568933508083034::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,82101
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Research Project: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies: Identification of atypical scrapie in Canadian sheep
http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/06/research-project-transmissible.html
Heidenhain Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease autopsy case report 'MOM'
DIVISION OF NEUROPATHOLOGY University of Texas Medical Branch 114 McCullough Bldg. Galveston, Texas 77555-0785
FAX COVER SHEET
DATE: 4-23-98
TO: Mr. Terry Singeltary @ -------
FROM: Gerald Campbell
FAX: (409) 772-5315 PHONE: (409) 772-2881
Number of Pages (including cover sheet):
Message:
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*
This document accompanying this transmission contains confidential information belonging to the sender that is legally privileged. This information is intended only for the use of the individual or entry names above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying distribution, or the taking of any action in reliances on the contents of this telefaxed information is strictly prohibited. If you received this telefax in error, please notify us by telephone immediately to arrange for return of the original documents. -------------------------- Patient Account: 90000014-518 Med. Rec. No.: (0160)118511Q Patient Name: POULTER, BARBARA Age: 63 YRS DOB: 10/17/34 Sex: F Admitting Race: C
Attending Dr.: Date / Time Admitted : 12/14/97 1228 Copies to:
UTMB University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas 77555-0543 (409) 772-1238 Fax (409) 772-5683 Pathology Report
FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS Autopsy' Office (409)772-2858
Autopsy NO.: AU-97-00435
AUTOPSY INFORMATION: Occupation: Unknown Birthplace: Unknown Residence: Crystal Beach Date/Time of Death: 12/14/97 13:30 Date/Time of Autopsy: 12/15/97 15:00 Pathologist/Resident: Pencil/Fernandez Service: Private Restriction: Brain only
FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS
I. Brain: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Heidenhain variant.
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/07/heidenhain-variant-creutzfeldt-jakob.html
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 11:38 AM Subject: PRO-MED ATYPICAL SCRAPIE
Background ----------- "Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. [Many of the neurological diseases can be transmitted by intracerebral inoculation, which causes this moderator to approach intracerebral studies as a tool for study, but not necessarily as a direct indication of transmissibility of natural diseases. - Mod.TG]
"The 1st successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.
"Results -------- "This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological, and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.
"Conclusions ------------ Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage."
Lastly, this moderator wishes to thank Terry Singletary for some of his behind the scenes work of providing citations and references for this posting. - Mod.TG]
The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Australia is available at
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:962575216785367::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,81729
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010
http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2010/04/scrapie-and-atypical-scrapie.html
http://nor-98.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 14, 2010
Prion Strain Mutation Determined by Prion Protein Conformational Compatibility and Primary Structure
Published Online May 13, 2010 Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1187107 Science Express Index
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/05/prion-strain-mutation-determined-by.html
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Prion Strain Mutation and Selection John Collinge
MEDICINE
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/06/prion-strain-mutation-and-selection.html
TRADE, TRADE, TRADE, TO HELL WITH HUMAN HEALTH, and a disease that will kill you after your term is over, just pass it on. I have written to every President since this nightmare began. and that is what this disease does, you pass it forward via a multitude of proven routes and sources via the medical, dental, and surgical arena's once exposed. what the USA is doing now, is the same thing the UK did with their mad cow disease, when they poisoned the globe. it's all about money $$$
DAMNING TESTIMONY FROM STANLEY PRUSINER THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER ON PRIONS SPEAKING ABOUT ANN VENEMAN
''they don't wanna know, the dont' care''
http://maddeer.org/video/embedded/prusinerclip.html
Saturday, June 19, 2010
U.S. DENIED UPGRADED BSE STATUS FROM OIE
see full text and reasons why here ;
http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-denied-upgraded-bse-status-from-oie.html
TSE
please read Senate 'Down Under' TSS SUBMISSION TO HANSARD SENATE VIA ABA, link at bottom of the following url ;
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/
RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 26 March 2003
I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/60/2/176#535
re-Human Prion Diseases in the United States
Posted by flounder on 01 Jan 2010 at 18:11 GMT
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Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: Title: HUMAN and ANIMAL TSE Classifications i.e. mad cow disease and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory Article Type: Personal View Corresponding Author: Mr. Terry S. Singeltary, Corresponding Author's Institution: na First Author: Terry S Singeltary, none Order of Authors: Terry S Singeltary, none; Terry S. Singeltary Abstract: TSEs have been rampant in the USA for decades in many species, and they all have been rendered and fed back to animals for human/animal consumption. I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2007.
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=090000648027c28e&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 2003 revisited 2009
http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/monitoring-occurrence-of-emerging-forms.html
IF you consider the many different TSE strains in different species in North America, and then think 'friendly fire' there from. For a few years now there seems to be a rise here in the U.S.A. of sporadic CJD strains of 'unknown phenotype', with ;
5 Includes 28 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 17 inconclusive cases;
6 Includes 28 (24 from 2010) cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded
http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf
There is a growing number of human CJD cases, and they were presented last week in San Francisco by Luigi Gambatti(?) from his CJD surveillance collection.
He estimates that it may be up to 14 or 15 persons which display selectively SPRPSC and practically no detected RPRPSC proteins.
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/1006-4240t1.htm
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4240t1.pdf
ATYPICAL BSE MORE VIRULENT TO HUMANS THAN UK STRAIN
18 January 2007 - Draft minutes of the SEAC 95 meeting (426 KB) held on 7 December 2006 are now available.
snip...
64. A member noted that at the recent Neuroprion meeting, a study was presented showing that in transgenic mice BSE passaged in sheep may be more virulent and infectious to a wider range of species than bovine derived BSE.
Other work presented suggested that BSE and bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE) MAY BE RELATED. A mutation had been identified in the prion protein gene in an AMERICAN BASE CASE THAT WAS SIMILAR IN NATURE TO A MUTATION FOUND IN CASES OF SPORADIC CJD.
snip...
http://www.seac.gov.uk/minutes/95.pdf
2008 - 2010
The statistical incidence of CJD cases in the United States has been revised to reflect that there is one case per 9000 in adults age 55 and older. Eighty-five percent of the cases are sporadic, meaning there is no known cause at present.
http://www.cjdfoundation.org/fact.html
CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER
>>> Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle. <<<
http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/03/irma-linda-andablo-cjd-victim-she-died.html
CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2010/03/cjd-texas-38-year-old-female-worked.html
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance in Texas
http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/
Friday, February 05, 2010
New Variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease case reports United States 2010 A Review
http://vcjd.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-variant-creutzfelt-jakob-disease.html
Friday, November 30, 2007
CJD QUESTIONNAIRE USA CWRU AND CJD FOUNDATION
http://cjdquestionnaire.blogspot.com/
IN CLOSING, I wish to say that if anyone still thinks that 85% to 90% of all sporadic CJD is a spontaneous happening without any route and source of the TSE agent, just a happen stance of bad luck, as some officials still claim today, as with every hospital that has a CJD exposure accident will tell you, if anyone still believes this, they should then go and resign from whatever scientific and or doctors field you practice in, because YOU are then partially responsible for the continued spread of this horrible disease around the Globe. For Pete's sake, if clusters happen with animal TSE, then why not humans? IF all these TSE transmit to many different animal species, both in the field and in the lab, what make's it so hard to believe that it will not transmit to humans? IF all these TSE in all these many different species, with all these many different strains now appearing, both typical and atypical, with over 20 strains in just typical scrapie alone, nor-98 atypical scrapie, with BSE freely transmitting to sheep as well, now 4 BSE strains in cattle i.e. c-BSE, l-BSE, h-BSE, and IBNC (prion gods will have to admit this is a prion TSE disease sooner or later), now 2 strains of CWD documented i.e. CWD-1 and CWD-2, and the TME with the drowsy TME strain and the hyper TME strain, if all this has been fed to humans and to livestock producing animals for human and animal consumption, then what would human TSE there from look like, either from consumption, or 2nd, 3rd, 4th passage via friendly fire i.e. via surgical, dental, blood, medical arenas, from humans exposed by consumption ? NOT to forget all the animal medical by-products there from too? BUT yet, officials will still try and have us believe that 85% to 95% of all human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE i.e. sporadic CJD, is a single strain, that just happens spontaneously, with no route and source from anything. P L E A S E, This is not rocket science. It's 2010, and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory should be put to rest once and for all. Iatrogenic CJD is spreading as we speak, there are many strains, they are becoming more virulent, and they came from some route and some source, and that could be many. North America is home to the most strains of documented natural field TSE in animals. These animals have been fed to both humans and animals for human consumption. The consumer there from are a source of TSE to the medical and surgical arena, and clusters there from are real, they are happening and there is a route and source. CJD and all human TSE prion disease must be made mandatory reportable, with NO age limits, with a CJD Questionnaire asking real questions pertaining to potential routes and sources going to all families of victims of this horrible disease. This must be done Nationally and Internationally immediately. We have floundered too long. ...
tarball, aka flounder, alias TSS, and for those that remember, madcowdeadmommadson
Terry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. Box 42 Bacliff, Texas USA 77518
Labels: clusters, global, PRION, SPORADIC CJD, surgical
posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at
9:30 PM
