Guest guest Posted March 7, 1999 Report Share Posted March 7, 1999 : Here's the story for those that don't have web access. Liz Form of mad cow disease strikes Oklahoman By LAURIE WINSLOW World Staff Writer 3/7/99 MIAMI, Okla. -- A 27-year-old Miami man is being treated for a rare and deadly disease that is a human variation of " mad cow disease. " Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a progressive disease of the nervous system that causes muscle spasms and loss of mental function. Symptoms may not occur for months or years after exposure. Meanwhile, a 30-year-old deer hunter di agnosed with the same condition is fighting for his life near Salt Lake City. His illness has raised questions about whether it is possible to contract the illness from eating deer meat. The Miami man also was a deer hunter, his relatives said. Death in the United States among people younger than 30 is extremely rare, causing fewer than five deaths per billion per year, according to experts. Among all ages, the number of cases occurring in Oklahoma ranges from one to five cases annually, according to the state Health Department. " This is a tragic case and a very severe disease in a young person, but it is not communicable person to person, so we don't see a single case as a public health emergency, " said Dr. Mike Crutcher, state epidemiologist with the Oklahoma State Department of Health. At first, symptoms of the disease may resemble those of other dementias with neglect of personal hygiene, apathy, irritability, forgetfulness and confusion, accord ing to the Merck Manual of Medical Information. The symptoms accelerate usually much more rapidly than in Alzheimer's disease. Muscle twitching usually appears in the first six months after symptoms begin. Trembling, clumsiness and peculiar body movements also may develop, according to the Merck Manual. No cure exists for the disease, and its progress cannot be slowed. Death usually occurs about three months to a year after the onset of illness. The Miami man first showed symptoms of the disease last fall when he started becoming forgetful, said a family member who did not want her name used. He would go out on business but couldn't find his way home, or he would forget where he had placed things just five to 10 minutes after setting them down, the Miami woman said. Some of his other symptoms have included weight loss, incontinence and not feeling pain, she added. He is be ing treated for the disease at a St. Louis hospital. " Sometimes he can make up conversations with you, and sometimes there's a blank that comes over him, and he's spaced out . . . He's not coherent at all, " she said. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, primarily affects adults, particularly those in their late 50s. A disease similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease occurs in sheep and goats (scrapie), elk and deer (chronic wasting disease) and cattle (mad cow disease). In recent years, breakouts of mad cow disease in Britain have forced the slaughter of vast numbers of cattle. The disease leaves the brains of infected animals spongy and riddled with gum-like strings. Though several young people in Britain contracted a human form of the fatal disease amid breakouts of mad cow disease, to date there has been no conclusive evidence linking their disease to eating beef, according to reports. No case of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) has ever been identified in cattle in the United Sates, despite active surveillance efforts for several years. Though the Miami man reportedly was a deer hunter, it is unknown how he contracted the disease. The disease is thought to be caused by a subvirus infectious protein particle called a prion. It is unclear how these protein particles are transmitted or cause neurologic disease. " This is an organism that has a predilection for the central nervous system. So people who are exposed to body tissues of the central nervous system of something else that is infected are at increased risk of contracting it, " said Crutcher. The progressive disease generally has a long incubation period of months or years. The majority of cases in humans are sporadic and no one knows what causes the disease. About five to 10 percent of the cases are inherited. A few people have acquired the disease from receiving contaminated corneal implants or possibly other tissue transplants from infected donors, according to the Merck Manual. Also, in the past, the disease has been associated with people who have received growth hormones prepared from a cadaver's pituitary gland. Synthetic growth hormone, however, is now available. end98 This report includes some information from the New York Times News Service. Laurie Winslow can be reached at 581-8466. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 7, 1999 Report Share Posted March 7, 1999 << . He is be ing treated for the disease at a St. Louis hospital. >> Someone needs to tell this individual there is no treatment for CJD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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