How do you get mad cow disease from sterilized medical equippment
By sedel1027
@sedel1027 (17846)
Cupertino, California
April 9, 2008 12:14pm CST
There is a story ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,348551,00.html ) in today's news about a 22 year old woman who contracted the actual mad cows disease during a gastric by pass.
First off, how is the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease even getting into the hospital to begin with.
Second, the equipment is suppose to be sterilized. So if that is the case how does the disease survive sterilization? Can other diseases do the same thing?
What concerns me even more is this
“Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease …..has been linked to tainted medical instruments and certain medical procedures, according to the Mayo Clinic.” To me that mean other people have gotten Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease during medical procedures.
2 responses
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
28 Jul 08
I have no idea about that either. I have often wandered the very same thing. If something is sterile, then i don't see how it is possible either to spread the disease. I would like to know how it got in the hospital too. the hospital is supposed to be a safe place to go but I am not so sure what is safe anymore.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
28 Jul 08
Did you read what Modestah wrote? Apparently mad cow can take up to 10 years to actually show up. So I guess what could happen is that you could have it, not know then the surgery could activate it OR you could go in for surgery and whatever sterilization method they use doesn't deactivate the mad cow disease.
I found this out:
Mad Cow disease is a prion. Prions are proteins that contain no DNA or RNA, two substances previously felt to be essential in reproduction of a living tissue.
Prions are normal constituents of the body when in their normal form or conformation, but they can become twisted in a conformation change (a change in shape – in the way the molecule is folded), and then they are thought to cause diseases.
@Modestah (11177)
• United States
14 Aug 08
that is interesting, sedel.
seems to me I heard recently about folks volunteering their highspeed internet connection for the use of research hospitals in the "folding of molecules"
I can't quite grasp that - but, I guess it is a very important contribution that they are making.
@Modestah (11177)
• United States
9 Apr 08
if it can be transmitted on medical equiptment sterilization would not make a difference, I am thinking, because the disease is not caused by some germ or bacterial contamination but by a whacked out protein.
this is very disconcerting! I thought that it had to be ingested, but the protein is being transmitted via instruments!!!
while sterilization would not help - how about wiping down the instruments as well as sterilizing them?
my husband worked for a dental office that hated to have the sterilizers run their full course, they were always turning the machines off on him - and when he would go and grab a steril pack the indicating tape (stripes appear when sterilization is complete) will not be changed at all!
@Modestah (11177)
• United States
9 Apr 08
my son just read this discussion and says that it got into the hospital in the first place when there was a patient having the disease already - who got operated on.... now the protein is on the instruments which will be used on the next patient...
this probably more likely to happen with spinal or brain surgeries or other parts of the body that the nervous system is highly concentrated.
so, the question is how many others are being infected by it?
Apparently it can take up to ten years to manifest symptoms.
Looks like the instruments will have to be disposable now!
