From USA Today, Jan 14 1nd 15, 1999?

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Not certain whether CJD Voice has mentioned/seen the following three

articles from USA Today on January 14 and 15, 1999 - Apologies if

duplication of other mail, Lynette.

PS: UK tally of nv-CJD is presently 34, not 21 as quoted in the first of

these articles!!!

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USA TODAY, 01/14/99- Updated 06:25 PM ET

Mad-cow disease jumps to humans

Two new studies provide the best evidence yet that the

brain-wasting

ailment known as mad-cow disease may have jumped from

cows to

people.

Some doctors fear that the presence of the disease in

cattle in Britain and

other European nations may cause a widespread outbreak

in humans.

Twenty-one human cases have already been reported in

the Britain; one

case has been reported in France.

" We've been waiting for these results, " says Lawrence

Schonberger of the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was not

involved in the

study. " You have a link now between the cow disease . .

.. and the human

disease. "

Some believe people get the disease by eating beef from

affected cattle.

" How people get the disease may be very difficult to

prove, " Schonberger

says, " but it's still a question that has to be

resolved. "

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USA Today, 1/15/99- Updated 06:32 PM ET

FDA issues guidelines for animal transplants to humans

WASHINGTON - Hoping to ease a shortage of human organs for

transplants, the government proposed guidelines Sept.

20 for putting live

animal cells, organs and tissues into people.

The guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration

will cover all forms

of xenotransplantation, as the practice is known,

including the implant of

whole animal organs such as livers into human beings.

The proposed rules

are aimed at preventing the spread of animal infections

to humans.

The guidelines are critically needed because of speedy

advances in

medical science and a shortage of human donor material.

In the last five

years, an average of 4,835 people a year donated their

organs after death,

federal statistics show. But 48,000 people are on a

growing list of people

awaiting transplants.

Scientists are increasingly worried about transfer of

animal diseases to

humans. For example, they are exploring possible links

between mad cow

disease and Creutzfeld Jakob Disease in humans. Even

common animal

bacteria such as salmonella can cause serious, even

fatal, illness in people.

" This guideline is aimed at achieving the right

balance, " said FDA

Commissioner Kessler. " We want to protect the

public and patients

from potential risks while not impeding research into

these promising new

treatments. "

The FDA recommends that patients be told of the

potential risks of animal

transplants to themselves, their families and close

contacts, especially

sexual partners. Patients should be monitored for

possible new types of

infections, the agency said.

Surgical transplant teams should include a veterinarian

and a doctor

specializing in infectious diseases, the guidelines

say. The hospital or clinic

should be associated with an accredited virology and

microbiology

laboratory.

Also, the proposals urge that samples of blood, cells

and tissue from the

animals and human recipients be saved for follow-up

investigations. And

the animals should be bred and reared in captivity from

known stock and

with close record-keeping and screening for known

causes of infection.

By The Associated Press

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USA Today, 01/14/99- Updated 06:23 PM ET

New health risks have agencies sharing data

WASHINGTON - The emergence of new infectious illnesses

such as

" mad cow " and Lyme disease has inspired greater

cooperation among

government agencies that monitor and seek solutions to

health problems,

scientists say.

But more is needed to fend off the economic and

ecological threat of an

epidemic in plants, wildlife or humans, experts said at

a congressional

briefing Friday.

New signs of cooperation:

An interagency committee under the State

Department is looking at

global disease surveillance.

A similar committee at the Food and Drug

Administration is

studying the spread of antibiotic-resistant

bacteria.

Microbiologist Gail H. Cassell of the University of

Alabama, Birmingham,

calls the trend " very encouraging " but says more

attention should be paid

to new diseases that plague plants and animals, because

they can give

humans a big headache, too.

" Little communication has occurred between scientists

working on

diseases of plants and diseases of animals and humans, "

says plant

pathologist E. Fry of Cornell University,

Ithaca, N.Y. " There are

commonalities that need to be explored. "

Such plant diseases as potato late blight, which can

wipe out acres of

potatoes and spread across the country in months, have

huge economic

impacts, Fry says.

Microbes affecting wild animals could imperil a species

or threaten

livestock, pets, poultry or people, says veterinarian

Victor F. Nettles,

University of Georgia, Athens.

Among new wildlife diseases, he says, are eye

infections in house finches,

which also affect poultry; chronic wasting disease, a

form of " mad cow "

disease that strikes mule deer, elk and white-tailed

deer in Colorado and

Wyoming, threatening game or captive herds; and

velogenic Newcastle

disease, a poultry illness that in the past five years

has killed cormorants in

North America.

Others remain a mystery, including unknown diseases

that killed bald

eagles in Arkansas and deer in land in 1994, and

the recent loss of

scores of manatees in south Florida.

" Research on animal diseases can anticipate related

diseases in man, "

says veterinarian A. Shadduck of Texas A&M

University, College

Station. " Prevention and surveillance are much cheaper

than containment

and eradication. "

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY