Is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease the same as Mad Cow disease?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040323-051052-3359r

Five CJD deaths in north N.J. in 15 months

WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- A 62-year old man in Northern New Jersey has died from a brain disorder that appears to be Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which, if confirmed, would be the fifth case of the rare disease in a little over a year in a two-county area, United Press International has learned.

The death last Friday of Ronald Swartz, of Denville, also would be the second CJD case in 2004 in New Jersey, where federal and state health authorities are investigating a potential cluster of cases of the rare brain disorder in the southern region of the state.

UPI also has learned that officials have reopened the case of a Philadelphia woman who died in 2000 and that case also is included among those in the possible cluster. Carrie Mahan, 29, died from a brain disorder that was never identified, but which physicians initially suspected of being the nation's first case of variant CJD, the form of the disease linked to mad cow disease.

The possible CJD cluster is associated with the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill, where as many as 13 CJD deaths might have occurred among employees and patrons who ate at the now defunct track. Both variant CJD and the spontaneously occurring form of the disease -- called sporadic CJD or simply CJD -- are incurable conditions that degenerate the brain and ultimately cause death.

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[MercutioATC]

1. Maybe...see here:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bse_cjd_qa.htm

Seems that some think there's a link.

[RogueTrooper]

2. CJD is hte human equivelant of BSE

The increase in people suffering, or dying from, CJD has increased dramatically in the UK since the mid-eighties BSE epidemic.

[leftchick]

3. it is the human form of mad cow disease...

or AKA vCJD, or varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Now, would our government hide that little varient detail in reporting this to disguise the fact that it is indeed vCJD? You betcha!

[treepig]

4. yup, its also the same (basically) as mad squirrel disease

Squirrel Brains May Be Unsafe

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Squirrel brains are a lip-smacking memory for Janet Norris Gates. They were the choicest morsels of the game her father once hunted in Tennessee. ``In our family, we saw it as a prized piece of meat, and if he shared it with you, you were pretty happy. Not that he was stingy,'' said Mrs. Gates, an oral historian in Frankfort, ``but there's just not much of a squirrel brain.'' Now, some people might want to think twice about eating squirrel brains, a backwoods Southern delicacy.

Two Kentucky doctors last month reported a possible link between eating squirrel brains and the rare and deadly human variety of mad-cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, thought to strike one person in 1 million, produces holes in the brain. Symptoms include loss of muscle control and dementia. It may take years, even decades, for symptoms to appear.
Dr. Eric Weisman, a behavioral neurologist who practices in rural western Kentucky, reported in the distinguished British medical journal The Lancet that he has treated 11 people for Creutzfeldt-Jakob in four years, and all had eaten squirrel brains at some time. Six of the victims, ranging in age from 56 to 78, have died.

The normal incidence of the disease in the area should be one case in about 10 years, he said.

http://www.greysquirrel.net/brain.html

[opihimoimoi]

5. Mongo 201.39 * Never Eat Squirl Brains *