- I receive email from people who are concerned - and well
they should be - about the potential risk of infection from Mad Cow BSE
and CJD prions and variants thereof. In humans, Mad Cow disease is called
vCJD or nvCJD...'new variant'. How prevalent is it? We don't know. Perhaps
an indicator is to be found in the autopsies of a group of 67 Alzheimer's
patients, 14 of which demonstrated they had actually died of vCJD...Mad
Cow disease.
-
- The following email raises several important aspects
about which I have talked and written for the last several years.
-
- "Hi Jeff -
-
- I have read the four recent (BSE/mad cow/CJD) news articles
on your site, which is my favorite. I have put the information together
and have deduced the following: I read your letter from a man in Texas
whose Mother died of BSE/CJD from her pills, i.e. bovine-derived vitamins.
You also published an article about a study that says medications are passed
into our water supply through the bodies of sick people and those meds
*stay* in the water supply. That Mad Cow BSE/CJD prions are virtually indestructible
is a given. Today, your site has an article about the water in a city in
the UK contaminated with a bio spill containing BSE. I deduce that if the
above information is correct, then we may be in for a natural biological
disaster in the years to come. There is a story there, I think. Do you?"
-
- Yes, indeed.
-
- I first went on record 5 years ago in being the first
to call for the end of ALL reusable 'sterilized' medical and dental instruments
because sterility from prions cannot be guaranteed. I have also made it
clear that - until proven otherwise - CJD must be considered potentially
orally-transmissible via blood.
-
- Not only do these proteins apparently range the full
spectrum of body tissue and are now know to be in blood. They are likely
to be in all body fluids as well.
-
- It is wise to keep in mind that 50% of people have blood
in their saliva at ALL times. Over 90% of people show blood in their saliva
after teeth brushing and vigorous kissing. In fact, kissing and the sharing
of *unsterilizable* (regarding BSE/CJD prions) food utensils in restaurants
in particular, are gravely serious matters...and are potentially deadly
behaviors because of the possible interfaces with people who are infeccted
with CJD, vCJD, and nvCJD...Mad Cow.
-
- Remember, there is an incubation period which can last
years before the infected person will demonstrate physical symptoms of
CJD prion disease. Since Alzheimer's Disease is ALSO a prion disease, it
cannot be left out of this discussion. There is NO current test short of
a brain necropsy which can accurately determine prion infection in either
humans, or cattle/deer/elk/sheep and other animals.
-
- Certainly, the water supply can potentially contain prions.
One only has to recall that the British buried millions of cattle, many
infected with indestructible killer prions, and that these carcasses are
now breaking down...and some of their contents will eventually move into
various ground water tables and aquifers and/or will run off into streams
and rivers.
-
- In the US, more and more accounts of mad deer and mad
elk disease are appearing in the media. Deer hunters are being warned not
to eat animals they shoot which 'show signs' of mad cow or 'chronic wasting
disease' but these warnings are ridiculous in that they fail to inform
hunters that deer and elk only show noticeable symptoms in the very final
stages of infection. Wildlife professionals and veterinarians are extremely
worried and concerned. Hunters should be scared stiff. By the way, the
only viable explanation to date as to how US deer and elk became infected
with BSE/mad cow is that they consumed tainted cattle feed spread out in
pastures for grazing cattle.
-
- Strange...how deer and elk got Mad Cow/BSE from that
feed but not the US cattle eating right along side of them in the same
pastures!! American cattle, according to the USDA and the beef industry,
seem to be magically immune from infection. At least that is what the feds
and the beef and dairy industries want us to believe.
-
- Repeating - Fact: there are no tests for mad cow/BSE
unless the brain of the animal is dissected in a laboratory by trained
scientists.
-
- Fact: most US cattle aren't allowed to live long enough
to manifest symptoms of mad cow/BSE/CJD ...they are all turned into hamburgers
and steaks, gelatin and scores of other human-interactive 'products' far
too quickly.
-
- See: Staggering List Of Products Made From Cattle
- http://www.rense.com/general6/cow.htm
-
- Nevertheless, former cattle rancher Howard Lyman (madcowboy.com)
and others of integrity, point out that every night over 10,000 cattle
go to sleep in the US...and don't awaken in the morning. And no one is
doing necropsies on them to find out why they died...they are usually just
quickly carted off to the rendering plants and converted into everything
from pet food to fertilizer for your garden. Some farmers just 'scoop,
shovel and shut-up' as a means to get rid of dead and downer cattle.
-
- No one knows for sure how many 'downer cattle' are slaughtered
each year and put into the food chain. A 'downer' cow is one that has trouble
walking or cannot walk. Many of these obviously could be suffering from
BSE...no one knows for sure because the USDA won't test them. In fact,
there are slaughterhouses which ONLY handle downer cattle. Restaurants
and food market chains have a choice as to whether or not to purchase meat
from downer cow slaughterhouses. Many go right ahead and purchase 'downer'
beef...because it is cheaper.
-
- Furthermore, the blood from slaughterhouses containing
innumerable diseases - and certainly a few prions - is commonly sprayed
over all sorts of commercial feed products for calves, pigs and especially
chickens. And then there is cow 'bone meal'...a primary source of added
calcium to a countless products from human calcium supplements to flower
and vegetable fertilizers. France has banned bone meal from being added
to any animal feed.
-
- By the way, 'they' are now putting human sewage - 'sludge'
- into many home garden fertilizers as a 'natural' ingredient. That 'sludge'
is loaded with everything from heavy metals, to pharmaceuticals, to viruses,
antibiotics and certainly some prions. Read the ingredients on that bag
of fertilizer before purchasing.
-
- Note that wastewater 'treatment plants' pump their 'treated'
human effluent into rivers, lakes, and into the oceans along both the East
and West coasts where routine water sampling along beaches now consistently
demonstrates live bacteria and viruses. What about the body fluids of CJD
victims? In life, they go down the drain and toilet; in death, their body
fluids are emptied down the drains of mortuaries when the victim is embalmed.
In 1998, some morticians expressed fear and hesitation over embalming people
who had died from CJD/BSE. If cremated, how high are the temperatures of
crematories? Over 1,000 degrees? Answer: NO. Current mortuary guidelines
for handling Alzheimer's and vCJD/CJD patients are extremely strict and
cautious and many morticians
- are, reportedly, refusing to embalm vCJD and Alzheimer's
victims.
-
- A visit to the dentist or dental hygienist now poses
a clear and viable threat to patient health due to the re-use of invasive
dental instruments...which are exposed to the blood and saliva of patient
after patient after patient. Of course, all good dentists and health care
professionals autoclave these instruments at around 240 F. to 'sterilize'
them...which works well enough for virtually all bacteria and viruses.
Unfortunately, the prions which cause mad cow, CJD, vCJD, and nvCJD *cannot*
be killed by anything less that 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
- How about eye fluids...tears? Opticians in the UK were
ordered over two years ago to stop re-using contact lenses on patients
coming in for fittings because of the concern of spreading BSE/CJD. In
other words, someone figured out that these proteins could be in tears.
-
- After prions were detected in the tonsils of UK Mad Cow/CJD
victims, the British conducted a lengthy examination of re-usable tonsillectomy
instruments at a number of UK hospitals. The results: over 50% of these
instruments shockingly showed evidence of prion contamination.
-
- In simple terms: sterilization procedures had failed
to destroy and remove prions from the instruments. The British became duly
concerned and announced that a program to test extracted tonsils themselves
for prion infection would commence as soon as possible. The tests were
conducted - but the results were never made public.
-
- Scientists at the University of San Francisco medical
school have proven that mad cow BSE and CJD, vCJD and nvCJD are essentially
the exact same creature. To repeat that earlier data: there was one test
(why haven't there been more?) on the brains of a group of over 60 Alzheimer's
fatalities which showed that a substantial percent of the victims examined,
about 14, had actually died of CJD/Mad Cow disease. Remember also that
Alzheimer's IS a prion disease.
-
- If Mad Cow/BSE is in the meat and bones and blood of
cow meat, and deer and elk, one must keep in mind that the *potential*
exists for it to be in cow's milk as well. Especially in light of the current
use of rBGH to drastically increase the milk output of dairy cattle...much
of the increase volume of the milk is WHITE BLOOD cells...pus. (visit notmilk.com
for full data).
-
- It is no big surprise that testing of the milk of cattle
known to have Mad Cow has *never* been done, or at least the results of
such tests have released to the public. The results of a single, positive
test which discovers a mad cow BSE protein in the milk of a single infected
cow would pose an immediate and massive billion dollar crisis for the dairy
industry.
-
- Since cows' milk is produced via the proteins, minerals
and fluids directly from the blood of the cow, it is logical to assume
there is a potential risk in all dairy products. We already know that to
be the case with a myriad of items now found in dairy products from artificially-induced
hormones to antibiotics to pesticide and herbicide residue. So, how can
anyone rule out prions? Answer: you can't. Again, as of this writing, not
a single test of the milk of a Mad Cow/BSE infected animal has been done...or
revealed.
-
- The recent case of the flock of Vermont sheep who were
determined to have mad cow, derived from eating cattle feed while in Europe,
is a cause for great concern. Although mad cow/BSE hasn't officially been
found in sheep dairy products, authorities in Vermont informed the public
that is would probably be best NOT TO EAT THE CHEESE made from this infected
herd. Now why do you suppose that warning was given?
-
- At this point, in light of the British health authorities'
now admitted policy of lying to and deceiving the populace there, it is
clear that the same basic patterns of denial and deceit - which allowed
the AIDS epidemic to burst out into the world so explosively - are being
practiced in these early stages of the CJD/BSE epidemic. Words to the wise.
Much to think about. -- Jeff Rense
-
- _____
-
-
- CJD Transmission Now A Risk At 'All Hospitals'
- Instruments Cannot Be Sterilized Of Prions
-
- The Guardian - UK
- 11-24-2
-
- Doctors at the hospital where 24 people have been exposed
to infection >from a deadly brain disease knew which patients were at
risk three months ago but failed to inform them, it emerged today. Health
officials are now trying to trace patients who could have been exposed
to sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) through contaminated instruments
used during surgery at Middlesbrough general hospital during the summer.
-
- A woman later diagnosed with CJD underwent neurosurgery
on July 19 but instruments used during her operation were used again on
more than 20 other people the in following months. Ian Holtby, director
of public health for Teesside, said doctors at South Tees hospitals NHS
trust knew of the woman diagnosis on August 8 but only decided they would
contact those at risk last Thursday. Dr Holtby said: "It is unfortunate
it has taken such a long time but it takes time to pull the experts together
and it takes quite a while to pull the information out about the degree
of risk." But he told patients not to "worry unduly" about
the potential risk of exposure to the fatal condition. "Those people
affected will be contacted, so if you haven't been contacted just forget
about it," he advised.
-
- The South Tees trust has withdrawn £90,000 worth
of surgical equipment following the scare. A hospital spokeswoman said:
"We have withdrawn several drills, craniotomy sets [used by surgeons
to cut open skulls] and general medical sets used in the theatre as a precaution
as soon as the diagnosis was confirmed." The Department of Health
(DoH) claimed the instruments should have been quarantined as soon as it
became clear there was a potential risk of transmitting CJD. The chief
medical officer has asked the regional director of public health, Dr Bill
Kirkup, to look into the incident at Middlesbrough and report to him shortly.
-
- Sir Liam Donaldson said the report "will ensure
that any measures necessary to improve local procedures or strengthen national
policy are taken". He said: "The immediate need is to provide
support and help for those who believe they may have been affected and
I am assured that the hospital is now so doing." Dr Paul Lawler, clinical
director for South Tees hospitals NHS trust, said the equipment was not
quarantined after the first operation because CJD was never suspected.
Dr Lawler said: "It is a terrible incident but nevertheless it could
still happen tomorrow in this hospital or indeed in any other hospital."
CJD accounts for about 85% of all cases of the illness and, although it
can prove fatal, it can also have an incubation period of up to 20 years.
-
- It is not to be confused with variant CJD, which is the
human form of BSE, and is potentially linked to contaminated meat. Government
guidance on the handling of instruments exposed to CJD has been in place
since 1999. A DoH spokesman said the guidelines to NHS trusts were there
to "prevent the avoidable and unnecessary exposure to this disease".
-
- Clive Evers, a spokesman and former chairman of the CJD
Support Network, said the incident showed warnings were not being taken
seriously. "This is something that should not have happened. There
has been guidance in place well before the time of this incident,"
he said.
-
- "Clearly what is happening is that good, solid guidance
is produced and it is not being disseminated, it is not being taken seriously,
it is not being publicized enough to the people who need to have access
to it. That's the lesson that has to be learnt."
-
- First Published 10-30-02
- SocietyGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2002
- http://society.guardian.co.uk/publichealth/story/0,11098,822525,00.html
-
-
-
- 29 Patients May Have CJD From 'Sterilized'
Instruments
-
- By Michael Holden
- 10-29-02
-
- LONDON (Reuters) - Twenty-nine patients at a hospital
in northern England may have been exposed to the deadly brain disease sporadic
CJD after infected equipment was used during surgery, officials said Wednesday.
The patients at Middlesbrough General Hospital all underwent operations
using instruments which had been used on a person who had a brain operation
in July. The patient was diagnosed a month later with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease (CJD), an extremely rare but fatal brain-wasting condition.
-
- A hospital spokeswoman said there was only a "very,
very low" theoretical risk the patients had been exposed. "We
have been working closely with the CJD surveillance unit to look at any
possible risk to these patients, though it must be stressed it is extremely
low," a hospital statement said. Only about one in a millionpeople
contract sporadic CJD. Unlike the variant CJD strain -- the human form
of "mad cow disease" which scientists suspect is contacted by
eating beef contaminated with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) --
sporadic CJD occurs randomly, usually in older people, and has no known
genetic or environmental cause
- British hospital guidelines specify that any equipment
used in operations in any suspected CJD cases should be quarantined. But
the Middlesbrough Hospital said there had been no reason to suspect the
original patient had CJD, and so there was no cause not to use the equipment,
which was withdrawn after the discovery was made.
-
- "It was due to the diligence of one of our pathologists
that a sample of tissue was sent to the CJD surveillance unit -- to rule
CJD out rather than confirm it," medical director Paul Lawler said.
"Once sporadic CJD was diagnosed we followed the procedure set down
by the CJD incidents panel."
-
- The hospital said it had delayed contacting the patients
until Tuesday because it had been waiting for further guidance, in accordance
with National Health Service practice. "We appreciate the distress
and concern this news may cause to these patients, their families and the
public at large," the hospital statement said.
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
- http://story.news.yahoo.com
-
-
- Some Earlier Warnings --
-
- The following compilation of CJD medical/dental instrument
contamination stories spans the past several years and makes abundantly
clear the risks and dangers of re-using invasive medical and dental instruments
which have been 'sterilized'.
-
- It is not possible to fully 'sterilize' instruments which
come into contact with CJD-infected patients. We believe the same to be
the case with Alzheimer's patients.
-
- Prions can withstand 1000 F. While the general risks
of contamination seem minimal, they cannot be ruled out as more and more
hospitals and medical organizations are realizing.
-
- Further, prions have now been found to be involved with
ALL forms of 'mad brain' diseases: CJD, BSE, CWD, vCJD, nvCJD, GSS, Alzheimer's
Disease and multiple other titles for the same basic pathology.
-
- Recently, at the Medical Society of Milwaukee, Dr. Rebecca
Meyerson, a neurology specialist with St. Mary's Duluth Clinic, stated
they do not do biopsies any more for Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease because of
the dangerous contamination issue.
-
-
- Jeff Rense Calls Again For New National
- Dental/Medical Sterilization Guidelines
-
- 10-29-00
-
- As I have been saying on my program and website for the
last several years now, we are past the age of 'sterilization' in medicine
and dentistry as we know it when it comes to the re-use of invasive medical/dental
instruments and equipment which now present the risk of spreading fatal
CJD/vCJD prions from infected patients to the uninfected. The following
headline confirms the issue in full:
-
- I repeat, once again, that dentists are possibly spreading
vCJD and Alzheimer's prion diseases from patient to patient. Most dentists
I have spoken to, doctors as well, haven't a clue about CJD prions and
how these tiny proteins are indestructible by all standard professional
sterilization protocols. They can survive temperatures of 1,000 degrees
Fahrenheit...about 5 times higher than autoclave sterilizers which are
now the benchmark technology for sterilizing all re-usable dental/medical
instruments.
-
- Any dentist or hygienist who works on a patient with
CJD (or Alzheimer's) exposes most instruments to the blood and saliva of
that fatally-infected patient. It is now clear that CJD prions will be
found not only in the patient's blood but quite possibly in the saliva
itself, as well. And those prions could still be found on the instruments
after 'sterilization' ...
-
- I again call on dentists and oral hygienists to cease
re-using invasive instruments on patients. Unfortunately, this won't happen
anytime soon, not until ignorance has been replaced with the hard science
of reality.
-
- All patients should be treated ONLY with single-use instruments
and hygienists should begin to encourage patients to purchase their own
prophylactic kits containing all the essential angles and teeth cleaning
tools. These kits could be purchased by patients and brought into the office
by the patient for each cleaning or dental procedure. All dental drills
and the drill bits should also be replaced for each patient with new, unused
equipment. That, of course, is not going to happen in the foreseeable future,
either. It is also well worth noting that over 50% of the tonsillectomy
instruments sampled in the UK showed Mad Cow prion contamination. It is
no surprise that story vanished almost overnight.
-
- One more time: dentists and doctors are now no longer
able to guarantee they are not possibly spreading CJD prions to uninfected,
innocent patients via re-usable medical/dental instruments.
-
- _________
-
- Here are a few more news stories describing the risk
of re-using invasive surgical instruments. All stories are available in
full at rense.com:
-
-
- 8 Patients May Have CJD From Re-used
'Sterile' Surgical Instruments
-
- By Suein Hwang and David Hamilton
- The Wall Street Journal
- 10-27-00
-
- Tulane University Hospital and Clinic is grappling with...
- http:www.msnbc.com/news/482126.asp
-
-
- Louisiana Man Exposed To Mad Cow/CJD
During Surgery Sues Hospital
-
- 11-30-0
-
- BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - A Louisiana man who
may have been exposed to a rare, fatal brain-wasting disease during surgery...
- http:www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=225603
-
-
- 14 Chicago Hospital Patients May
Have Been Infected With CJD
-
- 7-10-1
-
- CHICAGO (AP) - Fourteen patients at two hospitals may
have been exposed to CJD, a rare and deadly brain disease through tainted
surgical instruments...
-
-
- Canada Hospitals Study CJD Surgical Instrument
Risk
-
- 5-11-1
-
- TORONTO (AFP) - Four hospitals in southwestern Ontario
are conducting a risk assessment to see if their surgical instruments may
have been exposed to a fatal brain disorder
-
-
- UK Medicine Yields To vCJD - All
Tonsillectomy Instruments Now Disposable
-
- 1-6-1
-
- The National Heath Service (NHS) is to spend millions
of pounds to prevent
-
-
- vCJD To Cost Patients Billions To
Insure Safer Invasive Instruments
-
- By James Meikle - Health Correspondent
- The Guardian - UK
- 12-20-0
-
- The NHS (UK) faces the prospect of paying billions...
- http:www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,413721,00.html
-
-
- Possible CJD Risk From Re-Usable
'Sterile' Eye Surgery Instruments
-
- By Linda Davidson
- 7-21-1
-
- LONDON (Reuters Health) - Instruments used in eye surgery
could spread the human form of "mad cow" disease from patient
to patient, research published....
-
-
-
- 14 Chicago Hospital Patients May
Have Been Infected With CJD
-
- 7-10-1
-
- CHICAGO (AP) - Fourteen patients at two hospitals may
have been exposed to a rare and deadly brain disease...
-
-
- Warning Over Routine Surgical CJD Risks
-
- 2-26-99
-
- Australian researchers studying the risk factors linked
to sporadic CJD have found that the greatest is surgery for conditions
like hysterectomies and heart surgery. They think...
-
-
- CJD May Be Transmitted During Surgery
-
- By Steve Connor
- Science Editor - The Independent UK
- 1-15-99
-
- Scientists have found new evidence to suggest that the
human version of "mad cow" disease might be transmitted during
surgery...
-
-
- 'Mad Cow' Prions Form In Muscle
As Well As Brain Tissue
-
- By Merritt McKinney
- 3-19-2
-
- NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The abnormal proteins linked
to "mad cow" disease and other brain-wasting illnesses can form
in muscle much more easily than previously thought.
-
-
- Thousands Of UK Hospital Patients Exposed
to vCJD
-
- By Jonathan Leake
- Science Editor - The Sunday Times
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