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<DIV>All,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>9 Cases of Brain-Wasting Disease in Idaho</STRONG> <!-- END HEADLINE -->
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<P><SPAN><FONT size=2>By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press Writer
</FONT></SPAN>Mon Oct 17,11:56 AM ET </P>
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<P>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. <NOSCRIPT><IMG height=1 alt=""
src="http://bc.us.yahoo.com/b?P=QdmDsM6.I3r1bhegQ0P5zgXPRzKgPkNc6C8ADmcZ&T=1604m636u%2fX%3d1130162224%2fE%3d8903514%2fR%3dnews%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3d8%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d2934099491%2fH%3dY2FjaGVoaW50PSJuZXdzIiBjb250ZW50PSJoZWFsdGg7SGVhbHRoO2l0O0l0Ig--%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d6123BECE&U=1393kgnmh%2fN%3da4VxU86.Iq0-%2fC%3d351416.7369300.8293486.1414694%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d2639229"
width=1></NOSCRIPT></P>
<P>She got neither. Alvin Kingsford, 72, died recently of suspected
sporadic </P>
<P><SPAN class=yqlink><A class=yqimgins
title="Related information on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease"
onclick="activateYQinl(this);return false;"
href="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Creutzfeldt-Jakob+disease"><FONT
color=#000000>Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease</FONT></A></SPAN>, the fatal
brain-wasting illness. The disease can be conclusively diagnosed only with an
autopsy, which did not take place.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>"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."</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>Until this year.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>Ultimately, she opted to skip the autopsy and have a traditional funeral
service.</P>
<P>"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."</P>
<P>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 <SPAN class=yqlink> <A class=yqimgins
title="Related information on World Health Organization"
onclick="activateYQinl(this);return false;"
href="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=World+Health+Organization"><STRONG><FONT
color=#003db8>World Health Organization</FONT></STRONG></A></SPAN>.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>"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."</P>
<P>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.
<P>"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."
<P>"We definitely have a problem in Idaho," she added.
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