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

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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

#51

Post by 0db532a0 »

whiddershins wrote: post #33
sandworm101 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also an are where our innate fears, fears that modern society tells us are unacceptable, might have a place. There is a deep-seated fear of diseased people that once kept us healthy. Modern science has given us an understanding of disease that means there is often no need to physically separate paints where we know the disease is not easily transmitted. The shunning of an aids victim, or a child with cancer, is…

Nitpick note: The phrase is actually “deep seated.”

Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster say no.

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

#52

Post by OldFatCactus »

SEJeff wrote: post #49
OldFatCactus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's some info from a quick google: http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/victim23.html Looks like the dish is called Burgoo > The center of the burgoo universe is Owensboro, Kentucky

Just when I thought my home state couldn't embarrass me more by being backwards... Thanks!

Aw don't be embarrassed. It's a cool little bit of history. Growing up in the bible belt, I remember many charity events were accompanied by a stew. You could buy it by the quart. My local volunteer fire department made a stew twice a year and everyone in the community looked forward to it. My grandfather and father used to cook stews for my birthday. The act of cooking a stew was an all day affair and pretty fun by itself. Everyone would sit next to the stew cauldron and fire on a cold fall/winter day and take turns adding ingredients and stirring.

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

#53

Post by greglindahl »

fallingknife wrote: post #18
arkades wrote: post #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…

Infectious disease is one area where fear of the unknown is rational. We don't just need to defend against existing diseases, but also diseases yet to emerge. Just because CJD is rare doesn't mean that the next prion disease will be, so it would make sense to take measures to prevent transmission of prions now.

Is there someone advocating that we don't take measures now? Because we do take measures now. Example: there are a bunch of rules about what you can feed cows, and how to keep their nervous tissues out of meat at slaughter time.

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

#54

Post by danans »

SEJeff wrote: post #49
OldFatCactus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's some info from a quick google: http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/victim23.html Looks like the dish is called Burgoo > The center of the burgoo universe is Owensboro, Kentucky

Just when I thought my home state couldn't embarrass me more by being backwards... Thanks!

I wouldn't be embarrassed. Those squirrels were probably wild caught (vs factory farmed), and the fact that they didn't waste the brain shows their resourcefulness.

Those are,after all, the same things we (rightfully) laud in the consumption of other types of more normative food animals. Just because it's a squirrel shouldn't change that.

EDIT: Added editorial wording to second paragraph.

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

#55

Post by tshannon »

sillypuddy wrote: post #43
arkades wrote: post #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…

Is alzheimers a prion disease, or maybe just Prions are involved?

I believe Alzheimers is recognized as a metabolic disease now (some have even said Type 3 diabetes). It's in no way related to Prions.

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

#56

Post by prions »

sandworm101 wrote: post #27
fallingknife wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infectious disease is one area where fear of the unknown is rational. We don't just need to defend against existing diseases, but also diseases yet to emerge. Just because CJD is rare doesn't mean that the next prion disease will be, so it would make sense to take measures to prevent transmission of prions now.

It is also an are where our innate fears, fears that modern society tells us are unacceptable, might have a place. There is a deep-seated fear of diseased people that once kept us healthy. Modern science has given us an understanding of disease that means there is often no need to physically separate paints where we know the disease is not easily transmitted. The shunning of an aids victim, or a child with cancer, is…

As stated in the parent comments that the likelihood of prions spreading in an infectious disease like fashion is very slim. Articles like this, ironically from a science-oriented publication, really don't help the conversation. Luckily modern medicine is fact based and not fear based.

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

#57

Post by wetpaws »

mattmaroon wrote: post #50
fallingknife wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infectious disease is one area where fear of the unknown is rational. We don't just need to defend against existing diseases, but also diseases yet to emerge. Just because CJD is rare doesn't mean that the next prion disease will be, so it would make sense to take measures to prevent transmission of prions now.

I don't think that's true. Prions aren't bacteria or viruses that evolve and transmit. They're mostly just a misfolded protein that occurs spontaneously. (They can then be transmitted.) I'm not sure there will ever be a prion that hasn't already existed, whereas I am sure there will be new viruses and bacteria.

With the same effect I can argue that viruses and bacteria are just misarranged RNA :)

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

#58

Post by dingby »

fallingknife wrote: post #18
arkades wrote: post #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…

Infectious disease is one area where fear of the unknown is rational. We don't just need to defend against existing diseases, but also diseases yet to emerge. Just because CJD is rare doesn't mean that the next prion disease will be, so it would make sense to take measures to prevent transmission of prions now.

Your “next prion disease” is entirely hypothetical. Given that, it is pure speculation how to prevent its transmission. Why would you assume specific precautions taken would apply?

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

#59

Post by paulpauper »

growlist wrote: 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.

the odds of this are about zero. the donor would have to have CJD, which is already exceedingly rare.

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

#60

Post by katuskoti »

marsrover wrote: post #4

As someone with anxiety and eye problems, I'm not feeling great.

Same here. I've had strange eye problems that my doctor hasn't been able to explain, and I feel like my cognition is declining. It's easy to buy into unknowns like this which seem to explain everything wrong with you, but it's exceedingly unlikely.

More likely is that my eye problems are from wearing contacts in for too long and staring too long at a computer in a low-humidity environment and never blinking. My cognitive issues are probably from not eating healthily, not getting enough sleep, not exercising, and from being depressed.

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