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Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

blogs.scientificamerican.com

1–10 of 195 posts

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#5
post #2

Slightly worrying given that I had a cataract operation in my mid-30s. OTOH, I suspect I should be far more worried about the health impact of filthy diesel.

Isn't cataract surgery removing something, only?

FWIW, both my parents had cataracts removed, and my father who'd worn eyeglasses since the 1940's said he'd never seen better in his life. So, chin up.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#7
About 20 or so years ago I was feeling bad about my chances of developing the type of CJD associated with mad cow disease because of all the burgers I'd eaten over the preceding years.

There were also human cases getting reported at a rate that some suggested matched the pattern for the early days of an epidemic.

Luckily that never materialised. Still though having lived in the UK during a certain time period precludes one from donating blood elsewhere, to this day.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#8
post #2

Slightly worrying given that I had a cataract operation in my mid-30s. OTOH, I suspect I should be far more worried about the health impact of filthy diesel.

Isn't cataract surgery removing something, only? FWIW, both my parents had cataracts removed, and my father who'd worn eyeglasses since the 1940's said he'd never seen better in his life. So, chin up.

Yes, but the article says that the instruments used in opthalmology can be vectors for the prions. OP is fine though assuming his operation was more than a year ago and he's not currently dead.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#9
post #2

Slightly worrying given that I had a cataract operation in my mid-30s. OTOH, I suspect I should be far more worried about the health impact of filthy diesel.

Isn't cataract surgery removing something, only? FWIW, both my parents had cataracts removed, and my father who'd worn eyeglasses since the 1940's said he'd never seen better in his life. So, chin up.

cataract surgery involves replacing the lens with a new lens, now generally an artificial lens

https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/cataract-surgery.h...

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#10
Prion disease is exceedingly rare. CJD is the most common, with an incidence of 1 per 1,000,000 person-years worldwide, inclusive of all transmission vectors (including medical procedures).

Iatrogenic transmission is a rarer subset still: the riskiest transplants (with respect to CJD) are in the central nervous system. The UK tracked their transmission rates from 1970 to 2003 (a long period is needed because surgical transmission usually occurs in folks with long incubation periods - up to ten years or so) for dura transplants (something that goes into the CNS) and found a total of eight.

This article is one good step above scare-mongering, but only one.

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