Scary!!!
New Orleans Patients Exposed to Rare Brain Disease
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001028/sc/health_brain_dc_2.html
NEW ORLEANS, October 28, 2000 (Reuters) - Eight patients may have been
exposed to a rare and fatal brain ailment after they were operated on
with the same
instruments that had been used on a person who died of the illness,
officials at
Tulane University Hospital say.
The patients were notified of the danger after it was discovered the
instruments may have been tainted with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a
variant
of which is linked to ``mad cow'' disease.
The instruments received routine washing and sterilization after being
used
earlier on a patient later found to have died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease, but
the hospital said Friday that the risk of spreading the brain-wasting
ailment
may not have been eliminated.
The Wall Street Journal said the incident began in March when the
original patient underwent surgery, but the hospital in New Orleans did
not tell the other eight patients about the problem until this week.
The hospital, in a statement by its vice president Alan Miller, said
only that the ``the eight patients who potentially have been exposed
have been contacted, and we are providing counseling and the related
medical care they need.'' Miller said the names of the people would not
be released.
Medical experts said it was impossible to know if the patients, all of
whom underwent brain surgery, would contract the mysterious disease.
Symptoms may not develop for years and its presence is detected only
through autopsy, they said.
Autopsy results on the original patient, which the Journal said were
known in May, found that the patient had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
which leaves the brain with holes and a sponge-like consistency. It
causes progressive dementia, loss of physical functions and death.
Before the autopsy, the surgical tools that had been used on the
infected patient were used on the eight people now at risk.
"After the patient was treated, the surgical instruments used were put
through normal washing and sterilization procedures and used in
operations involving eight other patients,'' Miller said in a statement.
"The Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease risk is reduced by washing, but not
eliminated by normal sterilization protocols. The eight patients who may
have been exposed ... might have some risk of contracting the disease,''
he said.
Miller said the tainted tools had been ``taken out of service'' and that
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web
sites) had been notified.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is related to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, which is thought to be
transmitted to humans through the eating of infected beef. At least 70
people in Great Britain have died from the bovine-related illness.
The disease is thought to be transmitted through infected proteins
called "prions."
The CDC estimates the annual incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob is about one
case per million people.
Copyright © 2000 Yahoo! Inc., and Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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