Yahoo News: "Idaho probes outbreak of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease"

[distantearlywarning]

San Francisco (Reuters): "Tom Shanahan, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said five of the cases were in one geographic area and involved people over the age of 60."

snip

"Shanahan said researchers at Case Western Reserve confirmed that brain tissue from one woman showed CJD caused her death and that the state was waiting for results from two other tests. All the deaths occurred this year, beginning in February, he said.

"We actually are real concerned because we have never had more than three cases in a year and they are in one geographic area," Shanahan said."

Link here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050812/hl_nm/idaho_dc

[villager]

1. beef -- it's what's for dinner

n/t

[pitohui]

25. clearly states it is not the mad cow variant

this is the classic form of the disease

[daleo]

2. Same area - same grocery store?

Same hamburger?

They say it is not the mad cow variant, but this size of a geographic cluster makes me a bit wary on this score.

[distantearlywarning]

3. Yeah, that's what I thought too.

It seems like the most likely explanation for a cluster of CJD is some environmental factor (like beef), so I don't understand why they are referring to it as "naturally occurring". How can they be sure until they start ruling out environmental causes?

[daleo]

21. I understand geographic clusters can come about by coincidence.

But, I thought naturally occurring (i.e. a spontaneous genetic mutation) CJD was about a one in a million chance. So, five in the same area would seem highly unlikely, to say the least.

Maybe someone else can point out a flaw in this reasoning.

[pitohui]

26. a cluster in louisiana

it was 5 people, it came abt because all 5 had brain surgery at the same hospital where they'd done surgery on an infected patient

prions aren't sterilized by conventional methods

[yellowcanine]

4. or a cult of cannibals? Just asking.

[daleo]

20. Maybe some kind of zombie thing.

They eat human brains too, or so the movies say.

[AngryAmish]

24. This is the most likely explanation

People in Idaho are just plain weird. Fine potatoes, but the people are all nuts.

[mapster]

28. Idahoans are all nuts?

Christ, what a sweeping generalization. I live in Boise, the capital city. I think our county even went to Gore in 2000. If not the whole county then quite a few precincts. There are a lot of liberals here, as attested by the sell out crowds when Molly Ivins was here. And how to explain Blaine County, that liberal hotbed that is a second home to John Kerry. So take that remark back.

[BeyondThePale]

5. CJD could incubate for years...

It will be important to look at the life histories of these individuals. It is a horrible, horrible disease.

[CHIMO]

6. Scary

The article states that rates are 1 in a million and affects those 60 years and older.

Looking at the population of Idaho I have a number of 1.4 million(approx).

If one assumes that those over 60 years in age represent 30% of the population then that would mean about one case every two years. This is 12 times that. Definitely something significant!

[shrike]

7. Heard of a couple people down south who got it

They were hunters and sportsmen who regularly ate game; squirrel brains in particular, fried. Their conditions were attributed to that.

[Turbineguy]

8. Squirrel brains?

nah, I'm not going there.....

[SoCalDem]

16. Just plain EEEEEEW..How hard up do you have to be to eat

squirrel brains.. and how many squirrels WOULD that be..to "fill you up"..FIFTY?? A HUNDRED???

run little squirrels...run like the wind :(

[shrike]

27. Well, what can I say?

Some people like 'em. I would never touch 'em myself, but hey ...

[patcox2]

9. In New Jersey there was a cluster of 8 or 10 CJD cases, all ate in same

restaurant, at the horse track in Cherry Hill.

Here is an absolutely frightening account of it: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/articles/The%20Case%20of%20the%20Cherry%20Hill%20Cluster.htm

Google "cherry hill cluster cjd" for lots more. Its impossible that this was not mad cow.

[KoKo]

10. at the horse track in Cherry Hill?

are you serious? :eyes:

[patcox2]

11. Yup, there's lots on info on it available.

Wasn't just older people, too, and they died quick, like with mad cow. 3 were season ticket holders at the track, two worked there, everyone ate their between 1988 and 1992.

[mackdaddy]

12. "Mad Cow" in deer is called "CWD" and widespread

Over much of the west, and moving east many of the deer species are getting "Chronic Wasting Disease". This is the deer form of Mad Cow, or CJD in humans. The scientists still do not know how it is transmitted through the deer herds, but it is a big problem.

Deer meat is still being consumed in all of these areas. From the Mad Cow problems in England, we know that the more contaminated meat you consume the greater you chance of getting CJD, so older people being stricken is not surprising.

Here is a website about CWD, and precautions in prepping deer meat for consumption.

http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/recommendations.precautions

[Julius Civitatus]

13. With Bush in power people would never know if there's a BSE outbreak

It won't be like in England, where the authorities mounted a pervasive campaign to eradicate the outbreak and warn the populace.

Nope.

Here in the States the cattle-ranch industry would send some cash to the GOP, then lobby some more to hide certain "inconvenient" test results in in some cattle farms. "We'll take care of it, George. We're all for self-regulatin'."

Then the fast-food industry would lobby some more to hide the fact that meat from countless diseased cows could have been used in their burgers for years. "No need to alarm the public, Georgie boy."

Then the meat-product distributors would lobby some more money to make sure the feds don't look too much into the discovery of BSE tainted patties. "It probably isn't that bad, anyway. Here's your check, Mr. Cheney."

Take my word for it: in the United States, given the outrageous levels of CORRUPTION and outright SELLING-OUT of the adminstration to private interests, you'll hear about an outbreak of Mad Cow disease many, many years from now, when Creutzfeld-Jakob becomes a household name.

[buzzard]

14. Or blame it on Canadian beef.n/t

[Javaman]

15. Perhaps moron* should go up there and have a burger on me :)

[Sven77]

17. diseased food industry

this is what happens when you take downer cows to a rendering plant, convert them to cubes and feed them to other cows. cows should be fed grass not rotten blood or meat. mad cow is everywhere.

[Melodybe]

18. Why didn't they just call it mad cow?

[Julius Civitatus]

22. Because it's not exactly the same

They are very similar, and there's research in teh UK that seems to link BSE to CJD in humans. CJD is a human variant of the same type of prion-based encephalopaty that affects cows with BSE.

Still, CJD as a disease has been around for a long time, before BSE, and it was a very rare, extremely unusual disease that was thought to be genetic in origins.

Only right after the BSE epidemic in UK there was a following upsurge in the cases of CJD in humans in the region. From being an extremely rare and unusual disease, the UK went to have a couple hundred cases in only a short period of time.

What I find interesting, though, is that US officials may be just referring to CJD and NOT to BSE, as a way to obfuscate and hide a potential relationship. Heck! The Bush administration went recently as far as deeming "inacurate" the tests that came positive for BSE in American cattle, and asked to repeat them using different methods until it came out negative. Like I said earlier, their head-in-the-sand policy (probably fueled by massive lobbying) will only make things worst in the future.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. just don't go calling it mad cow disease. eom

[wli]

23. mad cow comes to the US n/t

[ecoalex]

29. There was a cluster in NJ. at an airport, the central commonality the

restaurant.