Why dangerous bird flu is spreading faster and farther than first thought...

[littlemissmartypants]

3. I had a patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow."

He got it through corneal transplantation. He was dead within a few weeks of receiving his contaminated harvested corneal grafts.

This was way before it was known that it's spread through tissue. The CDC didn't even know what infection control precautions were needed so I ended up being in head to toe PPE*, donning and doffing every time I went to treat him. Turns out none of it was necessary.


He was a very nice man that I watched deteriorate in the most horrendous way through day to day changes that we could do nothing to stop or even marginally ameliorate. It was really scary for him especially and his family, too.

*PPE required by the CDC at the time

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), also known as subacute spongiform encephalopathy or neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease, is a fatal degenerative brain disorder.[4][1] Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, poor coordination, and visual disturbances.[4] Later symptoms include dementia, involuntary movements, blindness, weakness, and coma.[4] About 70% of people die within a year of diagnosis.[4] The name Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease was introduced by Walther Spielmeyer in 1922, after the German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob.[6]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease
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The mad cow crisis is a health and socio-economic crisis characterized by the collapse of beef consumption in the 1990s, as consumers became concerned about the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to humans through the ingestion of this type of meat.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_cow_crisis

It would be a perfect ending for you know who.

❤️pants