First North American death of mad cow disease reported (months after it happened
bh | 08.08.2002 13:21
According to the headlines in this mornings Saskatoon Star Pheonix a man died earlier this year in Saskatoon from Mad Cow Disease. The story finally became news worthy now that the hospital is afraid of possible negligence law suites over the use a potentially contaminated endoscope that was used on seventy other patients...
According to the headlines in this mornings Saskatoon Star Pheonix a man died earlier this year in Saskatoon from Mad Cow Disease. The story finally became news worthy now that the hospital is afraid of possible negligence law suites over the use a potentially contaminated endoscope that was used on seventy other patients...
This follows a story several weeks ago about problems facing Elk ranchers in Saskatchewan who are unable to afford feed for their elk due to the drought, and cannot sell their elk because of the impact of fears of Mad Cow disease in the elk herds. The ranchers were proposing to let the elk run free in the wild, rather than letting them starve to death, but the risk of the elk spreading 'Mad Elk disease' in the wild was causing controversy (it is also possible that the elk ranchers were using the threat of releasing the elk into the wild as a way of leveraging some cash bail out payments for elk feed).
What is strange about this Mad Cow death is that, apparently, in North America, when someone dies of Mad Cow disease it is not considered news worthy, and this story is only breaking now, months after the death occured, because of the fear of lawsuits over negligence on the part of the hospital. The prions that are the cause of Mad Cow disease can only be destroyed by high temperature burning (they survive the cooking process for beef, for example). They are resistant to disinfectants, and therefore, since the same endoscope was used on the infected patient and then on seventy other patients, the possibility exists that the prions survived on the instrument, and the hence the fear of lawsuits.
In the hospitals favor is the fact that mad cow disease can only be diagosed in a post mortem autopsy, since there is currently no way to examine the brain tissue of a living person for evidence of the prions. Similarly, Alzheimers can only be diagnosed by emperical observations of a patients behavior, and can only be confirmed after death, by examining the brain. Therefore, although this has become the first reported death of Mad Cow disease in North America, it might not be the first death, since such deaths are apparently not reported, and this one would not be making the news now if the hospital, fearing a lawsuit, had not gone public to inform the seventy patients of the risk. As well it is possible that cases of Alzheimers where there was no post mortem autopsy could actually be unreported (unconfirmed) cases of CJD, in particular in the cases of what is known as 'Early onset Alzheimers' that affects young people.
For the past couple of years I have been going on about Mad Cow disease and posting Mad Cow stories on my own website, and so to me there is something particularly ironic that the first 'reported' death of Mad Cow disease in North America happened in my hometown (earlier this spring) just 30 blocks away from where I live.
And it also deeply disturbing that it takes circumstances such as this to publicize deaths of CJD, and makes one wonder if, while this is the first 'reported' case of mad cow disease, and given the strange circumstances under which it was finally reported, if it is not in the fact the first known death of Mad Cow disease in North America, since apparently these things aren't newsworthy, or powerful special interests are at work to make sure they do not become newsworthy?
Some links to previous Mad Cow stories...
http://www.awitness.org/news/june_2002/wisconsin_mad_deer_kill.html
http://www.awitness.org/journal/mad_cow_usa.html
This follows a story several weeks ago about problems facing Elk ranchers in Saskatchewan who are unable to afford feed for their elk due to the drought, and cannot sell their elk because of the impact of fears of Mad Cow disease in the elk herds. The ranchers were proposing to let the elk run free in the wild, rather than letting them starve to death, but the risk of the elk spreading 'Mad Elk disease' in the wild was causing controversy (it is also possible that the elk ranchers were using the threat of releasing the elk into the wild as a way of leveraging some cash bail out payments for elk feed).
What is strange about this Mad Cow death is that, apparently, in North America, when someone dies of Mad Cow disease it is not considered news worthy, and this story is only breaking now, months after the death occured, because of the fear of lawsuits over negligence on the part of the hospital. The prions that are the cause of Mad Cow disease can only be destroyed by high temperature burning (they survive the cooking process for beef, for example). They are resistant to disinfectants, and therefore, since the same endoscope was used on the infected patient and then on seventy other patients, the possibility exists that the prions survived on the instrument, and the hence the fear of lawsuits.
In the hospitals favor is the fact that mad cow disease can only be diagosed in a post mortem autopsy, since there is currently no way to examine the brain tissue of a living person for evidence of the prions. Similarly, Alzheimers can only be diagnosed by emperical observations of a patients behavior, and can only be confirmed after death, by examining the brain. Therefore, although this has become the first reported death of Mad Cow disease in North America, it might not be the first death, since such deaths are apparently not reported, and this one would not be making the news now if the hospital, fearing a lawsuit, had not gone public to inform the seventy patients of the risk. As well it is possible that cases of Alzheimers where there was no post mortem autopsy could actually be unreported (unconfirmed) cases of CJD, in particular in the cases of what is known as 'Early onset Alzheimers' that affects young people.
For the past couple of years I have been going on about Mad Cow disease and posting Mad Cow stories on my own website, and so to me there is something particularly ironic that the first 'reported' death of Mad Cow disease in North America happened in my hometown (earlier this spring) just 30 blocks away from where I live.
And it also deeply disturbing that it takes circumstances such as this to publicize deaths of CJD, and makes one wonder if, while this is the first 'reported' case of mad cow disease, and given the strange circumstances under which it was finally reported, if it is not in the fact the first known death of Mad Cow disease in North America, since apparently these things aren't newsworthy, or powerful special interests are at work to make sure they do not become newsworthy?
Some links to previous Mad Cow stories...
http://www.awitness.org/news/june_2002/wisconsin_mad_deer_kill.html http://www.awitness.org/journal/mad_cow_usa.html
bh
Comments
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Prions (The saga is not over by a long shot)
08.08.2002 21:48
(just a theory not convinced myself)
this was a biological attack by our own governments or biological testing at the least
the reason i say that is that pat mertz identified the Saf (Scrapie Associated Fibril ) ie: prion in 1967 yet the first case of Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy occured in britain in 1985 incubating from 1981 (daisy)
it always puzzled me as to what researh was done secretly on prions outwith the general recognition of the scientific community in the period from when they were first studied in the late 50's by Carleton Gadjusek
something does not add up
i know that the scientific community were/are studying prions over the last 4 decades but with the reduction in funding for the general scientific community over the seventies you wonder how much funding was redirected for secret research to be done on prions and their usefulness as a biological agent and if any sort of testing was carried out in the latter part of the seventies
just a thought
one thing is for sure mankinds battle with prions are just beginning
Nuggett
Canadian Health minister reassures Canadians
08.08.2002 21:55
According to the CBC report, " SASKATOON - A man from Saskatchewan is the first to die in Canada from "new variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Dr. Stephen Whitehead with the Regional Health Authority said the man made several long trips to the United Kingdom about a decade ago and it appeared he acquired the disease while he was there.
At a news conference in Saskatoon designed to quell any fears about a Canadian outbreak, Dr. Antonio Giulivi with Health Canada said "we can reassure the Canadian public that this person did not acquire the disease in Canada."
"New variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the human form of mad cow disease."
This story raises a few questions. First according to the CBC story the man died earlier this summer, and the diagnosis was made on August 6th, so apparently my suspicions about long delays in reporting Mad Cow disease were unfounded.
However I am disturbed by parts of the story as its coming out. First, I find myself wondering just what substance there is to the denials of the Canadian Health minister that Mad Cow disease is a North American problem. We know, for example, that we have mad deer, mad elk, and last month I heard a story about the slaughter of a bison herd carrying 'Mad Bison disease' because, apparently they were wandering from the confines of a park, and thus were considered a threat to ranching. The question is, are cows in North America somehow above it all? We know that, in the United States, for example, tens of thousands of road kill deer in Wisconsin alone are ground up and fed to cows as protein supplements. When we are then reassured that there is no Mad Cow problem here (only mad wild life) is there really any substance to the claims, and in the case of the United States in particular, where there is no required reporting and no testing regime, can we feel reassured that the lack of reports of Mad Cow disease indicate that cows have been eating those road killed deer with impunity?
The regime is stricter in Canada, where feeding cows ground up animals is banned (or so I believe. The regulations in the states allow calves to be weaned on cows blood from the slaughter houses, and obviously feeding deer to cows is no problem, and deer are also fed cows in return, and elk as well, in the hopes of growing larger antlers and promote the elk hunt.
As for the suggestion that the man caught Mad Cow disease on a trip to Britain, the suggestion is that 'it appears he caught the disease' while on a trip, but really this is speculation and hearsay. We don't know where he got it. And with mad elk and mad bison and mad deer on the loose over the continent I strikes me as a remarkable example of hubris to keep being in denial and assuming that cows are somehow sacrosant, and above it all. Today's reassurances and the speculation surrounding the cause of the death strike me as being hearsay, 'he says, she says', and do not qualify as evidence, but rather as opinion.
given the lack of controls and the lack of a vigorous testing regime, it seems that if mad cow disease is present in both human and cattle populations, it will take a death where a person cannot be said to have visited Europe or Japan or any other country at any time in their life, before people will begin to consider that perhaps we do have a problem, not just with mad deer, elk, and bison, but potentially with cattle as well...
bh
First death in Canada
09.08.2002 13:15
apparently an American died of it previously
bh