Blood/VA Hospitals

[Guest guest]

Hi gang,

I have a question...it may be nothing, but in a large number of patients

diagnosed with Lyme disease, symptoms related to Alzheimer disease have

emerged later on(as high as 40%). The cause is inconclusive. Lyme disease is

caused by an organism called Borrelia burgdorferi which is found mainly in

deer ticks and is injected into the individual while the tick is feeding. I

asked a neurologist at N.I.H. if the Alzheimer like dementia symptoms were

caused by the Borrelia organism or something else in the tick like a yeast or

fungi? There has been no conclusion.

Ticks like the head and neck region and especially the base of the skull

where the skull joins the vertebrae over the foramen magnum or the " great

window " especially in the dog (this happens to be where spinal taps are

performed sometimes to get spinal fluid samples). Ticks and mites are similar

in some respects and prion like activity has been suggested in hay mites in

Iceland where a case of Scrapie was investigated.

Head trauma sounds like an interesting possibility as a triggering sequellae

for CJD...what about 10, 20, 30 years ago a tick bite (could be singular) or

infestation, or problem with mites? Anybody recall anything such as that

occurring with a CJD patient/loved one?

Dave

[Guest guest]

Bev;

Thanks for that last post. I forwarded it to my husbands Neurologist.

That was the evidence that I needed to encourage her add CJD to the

death certificate as soon as possible.

I am feeling anger, disgust and really upset. Think about this? Wonder

if the VA has ever thought about...what IF a veteran did not die at a VA

Medical Center? What if they died at a private hospital? What if they

do not know where they died or what they died from? What if " it "

whatever " it " was did not get added to the death certificate? They

(whoever they are) said this was the way their statistics are deterined.

NO ONE supposedly has died from infected blood from a CJD donor.

All this may be true............But....my husband had a blood

transfusion at the VA Medical Center in Asheville NC on June 9, 1987 He

died Dec. 5, 1998 with CJD. Which, by the way was not included on teh

death certificate, due to his Neurologist beign on maternity leave.

If the disease can lay dormant for 40 years or more, why can it not lay

dormant 10 years, 20 years, 30 years...and so on?????

We still don't have all the answers we need.

Another thing that I came across reading some of the recent posts....The

word BACTERIA ame to my attention. I was told that he would more than

likely die with pneumonia or complications with it. Which he had in one

lung then developed it in the other lung after he went into a coma. The

doctor said this was common with a CJD patirmt in the final stages. I

know fro the many times he had pneumonia since being on

dialysis...pneumonia comes from BACTERIA floationg around in the fluid

gathered in the lungs ( in his case from kidney failure )

Now my question is......Are BACTERIA and PRION PROTEIN related in any

way?

Thanks for listening...

Betty

[Guest guest]

Hi

I had forgotten until just read about lyme disease. Dr. had

mentioned that after some of the tests, but she said she ruled it out

and then explained why. it seems that my husband had ever single

symptom and then some that came with CJD. Not all of them go along with

lyme disease.

That's why these posts are so great....You remeber things that have been

forgotten.

Thanks for reminding me.

Bettyt