[Vision2020] 9 Cases of Brain-Wasting Disease in Idaho

[Saundra Lund]

Hey -- wait a minute, Dick.  I think you're missing the point of the
article.  From the third paragraph:
"Sporadic, or naturally occurring, CJD differs from the permutation dubbed
variant CJD, which is caused by eating mad-cow-tainted beef and has killed
at least 180 people in the United Kingdom and continental Europe since the
1990s."

It seems to me the article is about a suspected Idaho cluster of *sporadic*
CJD, which *isn't* caused by eating tainted beef.  In your defense <g>, it's
not a very clearly written article.

However, I don't doubt that some of our legislators are suffering from a
brain wasting disease  ;-)  Before we make proficiency on the ISAT (in
addition to having passed the required number of courses) a requirement for
high school graduation, I *still* think all ID state legislators should take
the test -- call it a test run -- with the results to be published.  If we
expect our kids to be proficient, we should *certainly* expect that our
legislators demonstrate at least the same level of proficiency!


JMHO,
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2005, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****


-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Richard Schmidt
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 7:28 AM
To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] 9 Cases of Brain-Wasting Disease in Idaho 

All,
 
They may not put this in your Idaho papers because it may scare you!! Go
ahead and have a hamburger and beef hot dog! As some of you will remember I
have put at least 2 or 3 other articles on this subject on V2020. The
problem is being ignored by those in power. 
 
Dick Schmidt
 
 
9 Cases of Brain-Wasting Disease in Idaho 

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press Writer Mon Oct 17,11:56 AM ET 

BOISE, Idaho - From the moment Joan Kingsford first saw her husband stagger
in his welding shop, she wanted two things: His recovery and to know what
made him sick. 
 
<http://bc.us.yahoo.com/b?P=QdmDsM6.I3r1bhegQ0P5zgXPRzKgPkNc6C8ADmcZ&T=1604m
636u%2fX%3d1130162224%2fE%3d8903514%2fR%3dnews%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3d8%2fY
%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d2934099491%2fH%3dY2FjaGVoaW50PSJuZXdzIiBjb250ZW50PSJoZWFsdGg7
SGVhbHRoO2l0O0l0Ig--%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d6123BECE&U=1393kgnmh%2fN%3da4VxU
86.Iq0-%2fC%3d351416.7369300.8293486.1414694%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d2639229> 

She got neither. Alvin Kingsford, 72, died recently of suspected sporadic 

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Creutzfeldt-Jakob+disease> ,
the fatal brain-wasting illness. The disease can be conclusively diagnosed
only with an autopsy, which did not take place.

State and federal health officials are trying to get to the bottom of nine
reported cases of suspected sporadic CJD in Idaho this year. Sporadic, or
naturally occurring, CJD differs from the permutation dubbed variant CJD,
which is caused by eating mad-cow-tainted beef and has killed at least 180
people in the United Kingdom and continental Europe since the 1990s.

"One thing is very clear in Idaho - the number seems to be higher than the
number reported in previous years," said Dr. Ermias Belay, a CJD expert with
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "So far, the
investigations have not found any evidence of any exposure that might be
common among the cases."

Normally, sporadic CJD only strikes about one person in a million each year,
with an average of just 300 cases per year in the United States, or just
over one case a year in Idaho. Over the past two decades, the most cases
reported in Idaho in a single year has been three.

Until this year.

Of the nine suspected cases reported so far in 2005, three tested positive
for an infectious disease of the nervous system, though more tests are
pending to determine if the fatal illness was in fact sporadic CJD. Four
apparent victims were buried without autopsies. Two suspected cases tested
negative.

Still, federal and state health officials are stopping just short of calling
the Idaho cases a "cluster," waiting for final test results from the victims
who got autopsies.

The best tool of investigators to pin down the diagnosis - the autopsy - is
sometimes hard to get, said Tom Shanahan with the Idaho Department of Health
and Welfare.

Pathologists are often reluctant to perform the procedures, the cost of an
autopsy can be high and some families are reluctant to give their consent,
officials say.

Joan Kingsford wanted an autopsy done on her husband, but no mortician in
the area would agree to handle Alvin's body after his brain cavity had been
opened. They feared they would catch the rare disease, Kingsford said.

Ultimately, she opted to skip the autopsy and have a traditional funeral
service.

"A week before he passed away, the funeral homes said they wouldn't take the
blood out" if an autopsy was done on him, she said. "They just put some
embalming in him and told me I had to have a funeral in three days."

CJD is transmitted through a malformed prion found primarily in the brain
and spinal fluid of those infected, Belay said. Standard sterilization
procedures don't eliminate the risk of infection; instead equipment must be
soaked in a chemical solution for more than an hour and then heated,
according to the     World Health Organization
<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=World+Health+Organization> .

Mortuary procedures - including embalming - can be done safely on intact
bodies of CJD victims as long as extra precautions are taken, but the World
Health Organization does not recommend embalming patients who have had
autopsies.

Larry Whitaker, a Beaverton, Ore.-based regional salesman for the embalming
chemical and equipment manufacturer Dodge Company, offers workshops to his
clients on safe handling of CJD-infected bodies.

"When the brain has been removed, it is an extraordinary risk," Whitaker
said. "This is one time I think that cremation has to be more than mildly
considered."

A member of the Mormon Church, Joan Kingsford's church discourages
cremation. She was thrown into making a decision about her husband's remains
much sooner than she expected. 

"It was two and a half months before we knew what was wrong with him, and by
that time he was in the hospital," she said. "I wish we could have done the
autopsy, because I think people need to know about this." 

"We definitely have a problem in Idaho," she added.