Amid Mad-Cow Fear, Worries in Maryland Death

[diamond14]

Amid Mad-Cow Fear, Worries in Md. Death
Lack of Autopsies Hampers Research

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 11, 2004; Page C03


Early last February, Carolyn Lamb, a 64-year-old office administrator at a Bethesda school, phoned her husband. She had a headache and felt dizzy, she told Charles Lamb. Could he come and drive her home?

.......Within two months, Carolyn Lamb was dead, believed to be the victim of a brain-wasting illness known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that affects one in a million people.

Her age and symptoms, doctors say, pointed to a strain that is related to -- but not caused by -- eating beef from animals with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease. No brain biopsy or autopsy was performed, which would have confirmed the diagnosis. Even after the cause of his wife's death was recorded with the Maryland Health Department, Charles Lamb said: "Nobody contacted me. I was surprised."

....... sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob has afflicted 586 people in the United States since 1997.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6861-2004Jan10.html

[mhr]

1. Free Mad Cow Book Here

Download PDF of Mad Cow USA Here

http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html

http://www.prwatch.org/books/mcusa.pdf

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

3. Lots more

There are alot more of those cases than one may think.
It has been proven that mad cow can cause the regular CJD Called sporatic CJD. The FDA has known this for 2 years now.
Any rapid development like the story above can be atributed to a spread of BSE to humans. Some that they tried to claim were caused by hunters eating wild game infected with CWD, another TSE, cannot be proven, as it has not been shown that CWD can cross the species barrier to humans in Lab testing. It can cross to cattle however.
Studies have shown the CWD can cross the mucous membranes of the digestive tract to initiate infectiom in the lymphoid tissue before the invasion of the central nevous system in cattle.

Because of this, it is now certain that the cattle herd in the usa has been infected, most likely in areas of Colorado, Wisconsin, South Dakota. This has increased concern about a widespread outbreak of TSE's in humans (CJD) and cattle (BSE).

http://embojournal.npgjournals.com/cgi/reprint/21/23/6358.pdf

The only way you are safe is if they test ALL beef. It's just that simple. You can't find it if you don't test for it, and testing 20,000 cows out of 200,000 downer cows, and 1,000,000 slaughtered a year won't find it.
And, they must stop feeding animal protein back to cows, to pigs and chickens and turkeys as well. They feed pigs and turkeys and chickens back to cows STILL, so there is no way they will stop BSE from spreading this way.

Sproratic CJD is NOT even a reportable disease in most US states. You have no idea of how many of these cases there really are, and all that are rapid like this are most likely BSE caused.

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4047764
U.S. Mad Cow Link Raised in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Cases
Fri December 26, 2003 04:37 PM ET

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerCJD.cfm#bio
BSE Facts

CWD http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/scientific_advice15_en.html
Studies show so far that CWD is NOT transferrable to humans


http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031223-103657-3424r
USDA refused to release mad cow records
In addition, former USDA veterinarians tell UPI they have long suspected the disease was in U.S herds and there are probably additional infected animals.

here is a link to links, LoL
http://disc.server.com/Indices/167318.html


Here is another death recently (jan 3)

Suffolk Lawmaker Maxine Postal Dies of Brain Disorder
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=167318;article=1097;title=CJD%20WATCH

This stuff can get in our blood supply as well http://members.aol.com/debbieoney/blood.htm

There is another link I just can't find, says there are up to 3,000 cases of this a year, possibly many more!! None of them are checked for BSE caused, Mainly, rapid onset, and age of victim, there are young people dying from this, 19 years old, 29, etc.

http://members.aol.com/debbieoney/links.htm

http://www.fortunecity.com/healthclub/cpr/349/part1cjd.htm


And yes, you are right, it seems nobody gives a damn until it happens to one of their family members. But now is the time to make a stink.
It seems this BSE scare has all but fizzled away already.

I must stress, CJD the normal spontanious human disease, takes 2-3 years to kill you not 2-3 months! thats why that lab work is so so very important, (first link I posted) the report is by the top researchers of mad cow. I recommend you download it and spead the link to whoever you all travel and chat to.
The government has known this for 2 years now.

[Eloriel]

4. Good post

Of COURSE we've had BSE-related deaths here in the U.S., where greed, not food safety, is the ONLY motivator.

Of COURSE they're going to say, "Oh, this death had nothing to do with mad cow" and so forth and so on. They will lie about it and hide the deaths to the extent that they can. And apparently, most Americans are not in the least concerned. They should be.

Thanks for all the links too.

Eloriel

[kath]

11. Ummm, actually the variant form (tied to BSE) takes *longer* to kill

than the sporadic form, according to the stories I've read. So the woman in Md. probably did have the sporadic form.

[Oreegone]

2. I have seen several Creutzfledt-Jakob obits

Over the last few years listed in obits in our local paper. Wonder how many of these were actually checked for a connection?

One was a case they said they thought it was from eating elk meat. You just gotta wonder if they really knew.

[Ms. Clio]

5. they say it's the "sporadic" variety but how do they know???

Without autopsies???

The mind reels.

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

6. Amazing

Isn't it? the story is completely spun.

vCJD is the variant that broke out in the UK, it has rapid onset.
Once you show signs, you die fast.
The sporadic CJD, has a slow onset. When it shows signs, it takes years to die, similar to Alzheimer's. plus it shows up in older people.

New studies show that BSE can cause CJD that is identical to sCJD, except it has rapid onset, like vCJD. This woman died from mad cow.
The study is the first link I posted.
I suppose, because of her age, they are saying she has the spontanios
CJD. But they are twisting the rapid development part around.

The cases involving hunters, they didn't do testing either. Strange......

Now, this woman developed her symtoms and was almost or was dead before Canada's first mad cow was discovered, so I guess this means the USA had mad cow first.
Damn you Americans, always have to be first!
But, we might find one of these cases in our closet, and take first away from you again......

[Ms. Clio]

7. I don't see how she had anything other than vCJD

Especially if its distinguishing characteristic is rapid progression.

I am still just stunned that autopsies are not performed in these cases, although I understand that there is risk to the medical personnel and that the instruments become contaminated. It reminds me of what you wrote above about the testing--if you don't do it, then you can't really claim you didn't find anything!

Don't worry, I think the U.S. will keep first prize on this one--I am beginning to wonder if we've had the disease here for a decade or longer.

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

8. I think

they don't bother with Autopsies for a different reason(s)

They know what it is if it has rapid onset, so it's not worth the risk. Also, they can lie better and say "we just don't know for sure".
Plus,
If they find sCJD with rapid onset, oh boy, they are in big trouble!
They were TOLD 2 years ago, and they can't deny it.

I bet longer than 10 years, Dr. Marsh discovered it in 1964 when Mink died (7,300 of them) when they were fed downer cattle.

[daleo]

9. FOAF story

My wife has a friend in Calgary, Alberta whose friend (a highly qualified nurse in her late 40s) came down suddenly with a neurological condition less than a year ago. One day she couldn't remember where she had been all day. After some detective work, with the help of a son and daughter, she determined that she had went to a local coop store, bought a huge amount of stuff, then went back and returned it all. I gather there was something of a scene.

Not long afterwards she began to develop delusions, paranoia, etc. She is now being looked after by a sister and is in the advanced stages of dementia.

They claimed that they specifically ruled out CJV, but now I wonder. Calgary is in the same province that both recent mad cows are thought to have come from.

[Native]

10. When I researched Mad Cow a few years ago

I read that there is only one place in the U.S. where autopsies of suspected victims of vCJD are sent, that hospitals have been asked to send in autopsies of anyone suspected of dying from any type of brain wasting disease. The head of the center that receives the autopsies (can't remember the guy's name) said something to the effect that they aren't getting much of anything sent to them - he said that docs/coroners know the risks and few are willing to perform the procedure - the instruments must be discarded because the prions can't be killed, and they run the risk of contracting the disease themselves while performing the procedure. He cited numbers to prove his point. I can't remember the figures but I do recall that the no. of samples sent to them as a ratio of just the no. of possible naturally occurring CJD deaths and Alzheimer's deaths is incredibly low. Does anyone else remember anything about this?

[arikara]

12. There are concerns that the increase in sporadic CJD is caused by meat

Unfortunately both the US and the Canadian governments prefer to disregard these concerns. This from an article in Common Dreams...

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-07.htm

<snip>
Although the fact that Mad Cow disease causes variant CJD had already been strongly established, researchers at the University College of London nevertheless created transgenic mice complete with "humanized" brains genetically engineered with human genes to try to prove the link once and for all. When the researchers injected one strain of the "humanized" mice with infected cow brains, they came down with the same brain damage seen in human variant CJD, as expected. But when they tried this in a different strain of transgenic "humanized" mice, those mice got sick too, but most got sick from what looked exactly like sporadic CJD! The Mad Cow prions caused a disease that had a molecular signature indistinguishable from sporadic CJD. To the extent that animal experiments can simulate human results, their shocking conclusion was that eating infected meat might be responsible for some cases of sporadic CJD in addition to the expected variant CJD. The researchers concluded that "it is therefore possible that some patients with ... sporadic CJD may have a disease arising from BSE exposure."<17> Laura Manuelidis, section chief of surgery in the neuropathology department at Yale University comments, "Now people are beginning to realize that because something looks like sporadic CJD they can't necessarily conclude that it's not linked to ..."<18>
<snip>
The hundreds of American families stricken by sporadic CJD every year have been told that it just occurs by random chance. Professor Collinge, the head of the University College of London lab, noted "When you counsel those who have the classical sporadic disease, you tell them that it arises spontaneously out of the blue. I guess we can no longer say that."

"We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a result of BSE exposure," Professor Collinge continued, "but some more recent cases may be--the incidence of sporadic CJD has shown an upward trend in the UK over the last decade... serious consideration should be given to a proportion of this rise being BSE-related. Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic, has noted a sharp recent increase in sporadic CJD."<43> In the Nineties, Switzerland had the highest rate of Mad Cow disease in continental Europe, and their rate of sporadic CJD doubled.<44>
<snip>

And this article explains Canada's bizarre reasoning as to why our government doesn't plan to ban the feeding of animal products to cattle. They say that there is no point because it would be impossible to enforce. And ignoring all the scientists who are warning against the practice, they trot out the old corporate disinformation standby that such a ban would be based only on public perceeption and not on science.

http://tinyurl.com/2v7dj

Federal officials have ruled out a ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to cattle even though some government scientists say such a ban is the only way to be sure of stopping mad cow disease. Brian Evans, chief veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said a ban would not be based on science and would be impossible to enforce.

<snip>

Evans said the European approach is based on public perception rather than science. Under current Canadian regulations, cattle cannot be fed remains from other ruminants, including sheep and deer which can carry brain-wasting diseases linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

But cattle can still be fed the remains of horses, pigs, chickens and fish. Cattle blood and fat can be used in cattle feed, and many calves are weaned on cattle blood. Also, cattle remains can be fed to other animals such as pigs and horses.

<snip>

A number of other scientists and consumers groups have also called for a ban. The U.S.-based Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, has called on Washington to "outlaw the feeding of the remains of any mammal to any animals that humans eat."

But Evans said evidence for a ban is lacking. "It's not science-based to ban everything, to ban fish meal, to ban everything, to ban other species where BSE has never been diagnosed." Evans also said it would be impossible to prevent some farmers and mills from using carcasses in feed. "If you ban everything, all you're doing is driving underground into an illegal market those materials because unless you are at every rendering plant every day and can follow every load of that material and can see it buried or incinerated, there's no way."

MHR provided the link for the Mad Cow USA book and I highly recommend it. I thought that it was good enough to print it off (easier to read that way too)