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When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

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Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#11

Post by Blueskytech »

dnautics wrote: post #4
Blueskytech wrote: post #2

Many of you have probably heard about Prions and Papua New Guinea but the end of the article discusses new prion diseases showing up in deer within North America. The idea that human's could get a prion disease from deer meat, coupled with a potentially long incubation period, is frightening. Living in a hunting community I may avoid eating deer for the foreseeable future.

it's highly unlikely... There's a (probably directed, weighted) graph of species-species transmission potential, and it does seem to obey some rough distance rule, which does NOT correlate necessarily with species distance rule. We think that cows can transmit to humans; cows and sheep can co-transmit. (if you have a sheep with scrapie sharing a pasture with cow, the cow can get mad cow disease). deer though do not s…

That's really great information thanks for sharing

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#12

Post by metasean »

I first heard about prions and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after getting a letter saying I may have been exposed.

I had surgery after someone with CJD, but before that person died, was autopsied, and diagnosed.

That was over a decade ago. So far no signs of it. I did make peace with the fact that I have a much higher probability of dying from it than the average American. The only substantivu changes in my life are:

(a) My family and I have had very frank discussion about death earlier than we would have otherwise.

(b) I no longer donate blood.

(c) I removed myself as an organ donor. Although my family knows I still want my body to be available for science.

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#13

Post by itchyouch »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #8
YCode wrote: post #3

I understand prion diseases are rare and it's more likely I'll die in a car accident or something, but the persistence of prions is just a horrifying concept. Highly resistant to heat, radiation, proteases, enzymes... Basically if you've got a prion disease it's just a matter of time before they end you.

What would a cure for prion diseases even look like? Are prions targeted by the immune system at all? That to me is what is scary about them.

From what I recall, they are seen as normal proteins by the immune system, thus not targeted.

A simple illustration on prions was to imagine it like a busted cable end that would break the socket it plugs into, then the socket would break other cable ends plugged into it. This would occur until all sockets and cable ends were broken in the same way.

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#15

Post by maxerickson »

dnautics wrote: post #4
Blueskytech wrote: post #2

Many of you have probably heard about Prions and Papua New Guinea but the end of the article discusses new prion diseases showing up in deer within North America. The idea that human's could get a prion disease from deer meat, coupled with a potentially long incubation period, is frightening. Living in a hunting community I may avoid eating deer for the foreseeable future.

it's highly unlikely... There's a (probably directed, weighted) graph of species-species transmission potential, and it does seem to obey some rough distance rule, which does NOT correlate necessarily with species distance rule. We think that cows can transmit to humans; cows and sheep can co-transmit. (if you have a sheep with scrapie sharing a pasture with cow, the cow can get mad cow disease). deer though do not s…

Identification and containment is also a management priority:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10366_54559_59155-3...

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#18

Post by laurentoget »

Prions were the cause of the BSE cattle disease. more commonly known as mad cow disease in europe some years ago, which was blamed on cattle being fed animal products. It killed a couple hundred human and millions of animals either died or were slaughtered.

The incubation period is several years so at the height of the crisis the worst case scenario involved hundreds of thousand of people developing the disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat...

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#19

Post by cortesoft »

gonvaled wrote: post #17
ethomson wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, you can. What you cannot do, however, is remain alive to get the results.

Unless they are negative?

No, he is making a joke that you can only test by looking at slices of brain tissue (which require you to be dead to do)

Re: When People Ate People, a Strange Disease Emerged

#20

Post by maxerickson »

laurentoget wrote: post #18

Prions were the cause of the BSE cattle disease. more commonly known as mad cow disease in europe some years ago, which was blamed on cattle being fed animal products. It killed a couple hundred human and millions of animals either died or were slaughtered. The incubation period is several years so at the height of the crisis the worst case scenario involved hundreds of thousand of people developing the disease. http…

Lots of US people end up hearing about this in a roundabout way, having lived in the UK for a period of time is a disqualifier for donating blood in the US. So each time you donate blood you read a question asking about cumulative time spent:

https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProduct...

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