Guest guest Posted January 19, 1999 Report Share Posted January 19, 1999 --------------- Forwarded Story --------------- Headline: SURGEONS FEAR SCALPELS COULD PASS ON CJD Wire Service: PA (PA News) Date: Fri, Jan 15, 1999 Copyright 1999 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission, publication, transfer or commerical exploitation of this information is expressly forbidden. By von Radowitz, Medical Correspondent, PA News Surgeons today pressed the Government for swift action over heightened fears of surgical instruments passing on the human form of mad cow disease. Mr Alan , secretary of a professional body representing ear, nose and throat specialists, said surgeons were " very concerned " about new findings from researchers investigating new variant CJD. In a paper published in the Lancet medical journal today a team headed by Professor Collinge, from St 's Hospital, London, said they had shown beyond doubt that tonsils are infected by the disease. If this was true then almost certainly other organs such as the lymph glands, spleen and appendix, would also be affected. This raised the serious possibility of surgical instruments being contaminated and transmitting the disease agent between patients. The rogue prion proteins thought to spread diseases like nvCJD cannot be removed from instruments by sterilisation. Mr , a consultant at the Queen hospital, Birmingham, and secretary of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists (correct), said today: " The concern really is whether or not there are people out there who you might transmit the disease from one to another with surgical instruments or tissue transfer, or blood transfusions. " Our position has to be that we are very concerned. The new research has definitely heightened our concern and we need new guidance quickly. " One implication of Professor Collinge's research is that nvCJD which is still incubating in a patient and not producing any symptoms might be transmitted through surgical instruments. Yesterday Professor Collinge said he was personally in favour of disposable instruments being introduced for certain procedures. Mr said disposable instruments were cheaper and not as robust as the non-disposable variety. However surgeons would switch to them if necessary. Precautionary guidelines issued in April says surgeons should dispose of instruments they know have been used to operate on a patient suffering from nvCJD. If a case was suspected, the instruments should be quarantined and not touched again unless it proved to be a false alarm. A working group from two committees, the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens, and the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, is now looking at the issue again in light of the new evidence. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: " You can't put out guidance the same day as a research paper is published. " The point is you need to have experts take a look at this to be quite sure that any changes are appropriate, safe and effective. In due course the experts will make recommendations to us and we will make those recommendations public. " Shadow Health Minister Alan Duncan accused the Government of being too slow to acknowledge the possible risk from surgical instruments. He said: " I am calling on the Government to embark immediately upon a screening programme of pathology specimens to establish the risk of transmission of nvCJD to patients subsequently operated on with contaminated surgical instruments, and to urgently examine proposals to begin using disposable instruments for operations on the tonsils, appendix and spleen. " The Government's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Liam son, today said new safety measures would now be considered in the light of Professor Collinge's study. He said on BBC Radio 4: " We are taking advice from doctors and scientists whom we have used in the past on all our expert committees to decide whether we need to extend precautionary measures.. " We are looking at the possibility of disposable instruments but in any field it is the matter of balancing different sorts of risk. " Most surgical operations are dependent not just on the skill of the surgeon but on highly engineered surgical instruments made of metal and carefully constructed. " Later, interviewed on Channel 4 News, Prof son acknowledged that no one at present had any idea how big a problem nvCJD was going to be. " On the present number of cases the size of the eventual number of cases could be anywhere between a hundred or up into the millions, " he said. " In three or four years time we'll have a much clearer idea of what's going to happen. " Prof Collinge's team is to examine thousands of samples of tonsils removed in routine operations and test them for nvCJD. It is hoped the results will provide an early warning if a serious epidemic is on the way. Another group of scientists is to look at appendix specimens stored in pathology labs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 16, 2001 Report Share Posted March 16, 2001 Lis, We stopped getting the fries from Mc's about two months ago......just couldn't trust them. But, my son is a major reactor to corn and I found out they were also using a vegetable oil that contained corn, so that made them a big fat no for us. You mentioned the fries (which could have a corn issue) and the chips (corn). Just a thought, could it be that he is having these asthma attacks from having a reaction to the corn? Hope your guy is better now. Elsie (in Texas) Contamination > The other night, though, he ate 2-3 fries and refused to eat any more. I was annoyed, as I was doing something special for him, and he was getting " pickier " right before my eyes! (He only eats gfcf coffee cake right now). He kept insisting that there was something wrong with the fries, so his brother and I ate them up. That night he had an asthmatic episode. :-( > > I thought perhaps Mc's had changed their recipe, but . . . > > I took all my boys out to lunch Wed. (even my grown son) and we had a great time. We went to a sandwich place, so K. got a bowl of tortilla chips that we've already checked to be gfcf. He complained again that there was something wrong with the food. I didn't know if he was trying to be annoying or what. I tasted them and they were fine. He continued eating a few more, then just stopped and didn't say anything. He was pleasant to everyone, so his refusal to eat was not a power play. That night, he had another asthmatic episode.> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2001 Report Share Posted March 17, 2001 > I really hope he doesn't have another food allergy. I'm having a > hard enough time with the gf diet (he's been cow dairy free for many > years, and thankfully he does well on fresh goat milk -- especially > now that we've got our own goats), and the idea of even more > limitations frightens me. > > Thanks for your support, > Lis > Lis, then you are only gf free and not cf? Cause goats milk is also a no on this diet unless you are only GF. Im just curious. * ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 18, 2001 Report Share Posted March 18, 2001 wrote: >is, then you are only gf free and not cf? Cause goats milk is also a no >on this diet unless you are only GF. Im just curious. My boys are not autistic; they are allergic to cow milk (asthma). They both do very well with the goat milk. Sorry if my mention of goat milk led anyone to believe it was ok for a completely gfcf diet. The diet my boys have to follow is so similar to the gfcf that I find a *lot* of support here. My almost 10 yr old has eaten nothing but bread since he started eating solid foods at 16 months. I spent years stuffing applesauce, pumpkin, sweet potato, zuccini, banana, etc., into his breads and muffins in an attempt to get him to eat *something* else. Finally, an internet pal with an autistic child suggested that his refusal of all foods that weren't bread may indicate a gluten allergy (she sent me to this list for support). So we plunged into the gf part of the diet. Immediate withdrawal! He was always such an unflappable boy, nothing ever got under his skin, the " perfect " older brother. No more! I think he was drugged with the gluten all this time. I also have to point out that he has made great strides in his schoolwork (we homeschool) in the past 8 weeks we've been gf-cf (cow free). He is " getting " things so much more quickly. I'm hoping he grows a bit and puts on weight as he's always been terribly skinny. Eating gf was really hard at first, but it's getting easier. I just bought Bette Hagman's _Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Breads_ and will start making " real " bread again as soon as the ingredients I had to special order come in at the health food store. I've been reading that celiac disease is genetic, so if one family member has it, everyone should be tested. At this point it is easier to just keep everyone off gluten. My husband is very resistant to totally cutting gluten out of his diet, but I suspect it would be beneficial for him. He has severe allergies to grass and develops asthma April-June every year. On the scratch test, he comes up as severely allergic to wheat and other grains, though eats them without a problem. He says he comes up positive to the grains because of his inhalant allergies, but I suspect he may have a problem with gluten, too. He is very skinny, btw. Lis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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