Can CWD jump to humans? Concerns keep rising
Can CWD jump to humans? Concerns keep rising
https://www.caller.com/story/news/lo...ing/453371001/
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...673#post166573
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...673#post166573
Amid renewed concern about whether chronic wasting disease can jump from deer to people, a fatal human brain condition in the same family is showing up more often in Wisconsin and nationally.
It's happening as state testing for the deer disease is down, and hunters routinely opt not to test deer killed in affected zones.
In 2002, the year CWD was discovered in Wisconsin, six cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were recorded, according to the state Department of Health Services. In two of the last four years, 13 cases have been recorded. That's a 117% increase.
Nationally, there also has been an increase in cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In 2002, there were 260 cases, compared with 481 in 2015, an 85% increase, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob is closely related to the form of mad cow disease that infected people, primarily in Great Britain, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, after they ate beef from infected cows. Indeed, human mad cow disease is known as variant-Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Both diseases attack the brain, and death usually occurs within a year.
The increase in Wisconsin comes as chronic wasting disease — which, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is caused by infectious agents known as prions — continues to spread among deer. Like its human counterparts, CWD also attacks the brain and is always fatal.
In Wisconsin, it appeared initially to be confined to a core area of western Dane County and eastern Iowa County. Today, there are 18 counties where CWD has been found in the wild deer population, according to state figures. Nationally, CWD is known to exist in at least 21 states.
That raises two questions: whether the rise in Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases is statistically significant, and whether it is linked to the spread of CWD.
Wisconsin officials are skeptical on both counts.
“The department believes the modest increase in the number of confirmed cases in the state is a reflection of our increased efforts to detect and confirm cases,” Jennifer Miller, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said in an email.
Since Creutzfeldt-Jakob occurs mainly in people over the age of 60, an aging population also may be factor, she said.
Miller said that the increased surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases began in 2002, when it became a reportable disease with vigorous follow-up. Prior to that, all figures were based on death certificate data.
Nevertheless, the public health implications of CWD have gained some urgency.
A study in Canada, where the deer disease also is present, found that macaque monkeys had contracted chronic wasting disease after being fed meat from deer that had tested positive for CWD. The findings are the first known transmissions of the prion disease to a primate from eating infected venison.
“While no human cases of CWD have been reported to date, the new study findings raise concerns that people who hunt or consume meat from infected animals could be at risk for CWD infection,” Christine Pearson, a spokesperson for the CDC, said in an email.
Concerns about possible transmission of the disease to humans have led to a two-pronged approach by the CDC: It is looking for unusual cases of human prion disease and attempting to find cases of prion disease in people who may have eaten meat from infected animals. Complicating that process, incubation periods for prion diseases can vary from several years to decades.
In the meantime, the CDC says meat from infected deer should not be eaten and hunters should have their deer or elk tested if it came from an area where the disease is known to exist.
For now, the CDC attributes the increase to an aging population, more awareness among neurologists and the use of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The lab is where the brains of people with suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are sent for analysis and to monitor for any potential new prion diseases in people.
Can CWD jump to humans? Concerns keep rising
https://www.caller.com/story/news/lo...ing/453371001/
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...673#post166573
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...673#post166573
Amid renewed concern about whether chronic wasting disease can jump from deer to people, a fatal human brain condition in the same family is showing up more often in Wisconsin and nationally.
It's happening as state testing for the deer disease is down, and hunters routinely opt not to test deer killed in affected zones.
In 2002, the year CWD was discovered in Wisconsin, six cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were recorded, according to the state Department of Health Services. In two of the last four years, 13 cases have been recorded. That's a 117% increase.
Nationally, there also has been an increase in cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In 2002, there were 260 cases, compared with 481 in 2015, an 85% increase, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob is closely related to the form of mad cow disease that infected people, primarily in Great Britain, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, after they ate beef from infected cows. Indeed, human mad cow disease is known as variant-Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Both diseases attack the brain, and death usually occurs within a year.
The increase in Wisconsin comes as chronic wasting disease — which, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is caused by infectious agents known as prions — continues to spread among deer. Like its human counterparts, CWD also attacks the brain and is always fatal.
In Wisconsin, it appeared initially to be confined to a core area of western Dane County and eastern Iowa County. Today, there are 18 counties where CWD has been found in the wild deer population, according to state figures. Nationally, CWD is known to exist in at least 21 states.
That raises two questions: whether the rise in Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases is statistically significant, and whether it is linked to the spread of CWD.
Wisconsin officials are skeptical on both counts.
“The department believes the modest increase in the number of confirmed cases in the state is a reflection of our increased efforts to detect and confirm cases,” Jennifer Miller, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said in an email.
Since Creutzfeldt-Jakob occurs mainly in people over the age of 60, an aging population also may be factor, she said.
Miller said that the increased surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases began in 2002, when it became a reportable disease with vigorous follow-up. Prior to that, all figures were based on death certificate data.
Nevertheless, the public health implications of CWD have gained some urgency.
A study in Canada, where the deer disease also is present, found that macaque monkeys had contracted chronic wasting disease after being fed meat from deer that had tested positive for CWD. The findings are the first known transmissions of the prion disease to a primate from eating infected venison.
“While no human cases of CWD have been reported to date, the new study findings raise concerns that people who hunt or consume meat from infected animals could be at risk for CWD infection,” Christine Pearson, a spokesperson for the CDC, said in an email.
Concerns about possible transmission of the disease to humans have led to a two-pronged approach by the CDC: It is looking for unusual cases of human prion disease and attempting to find cases of prion disease in people who may have eaten meat from infected animals. Complicating that process, incubation periods for prion diseases can vary from several years to decades.
In the meantime, the CDC says meat from infected deer should not be eaten and hunters should have their deer or elk tested if it came from an area where the disease is known to exist.
For now, the CDC attributes the increase to an aging population, more awareness among neurologists and the use of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The lab is where the brains of people with suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are sent for analysis and to monitor for any potential new prion diseases in people.
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