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EVER-PRESENT POSSIBILITY. "The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian announced that up to 4,000 patients might have been exposed to the prion. Both incidents show that the hospital transmission of prion diseases remains an ever-present possibility, if thankfully a very unlikely one." (2002). https://lnkd.in/epAib2h View in LinkedIn

"INFECTION, by the classic definition, means that a bacterium or virus or other small organism has entered our body and reproduced itself many times over, causing damage in the process. In response to the damage, we sneeze, vomit, cough or bleed. Even a futuristic definition of infection, which includes the possibility of "gene therapy gone wrong" causing a kind of "infection by DNA," still requires the presence of genetic material." http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040216/killer.shtml View in LinkedIn

IATROGENIC PRION DISEASE. "Between 1970 and 2001, 24 cases of "iatrogenic" CJD (caused by doctors) were recorded in Britain, where the disease was spread during operations or by the use of human-derived hormones or factors. Some scientists believe that the much larger number of cases of "sporadic" CJD in Britain could also be linked to BSE-contaminated instruments." https://lnkd.in/e3kjJMz View in LinkedIn

NEW RULES. "Nothing comes from nothing. For decades, the rule of biological reproduction has stated that in order for something to replicate itself, genetic material is required. Prions, it would seem, forgot to read that particular rule." http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040216/killer.shtml View in LinkedIn

INFECTION. "New Hampshire health officials announced last week that hospitals in three New England states may have accidentally exposed 15 people to prions, the infectious protein that ravages the brain and leaves it full of holes. Evidently, the hospitals involved used surgical tools that had previously been deployed on a patient who officials suspect later died from a particular prion infection called sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)." https://lnkd.in/epAib2h View in LinkedIn

SLOW BURN. "With an incubation period that could stretch to decades, "it's hard to say this is the end of the outbreak and it's all over," according to Ryan Maddox, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)." Possibly the next big one. https://lnkd.in/ehyZ7DA View in LinkedIn

AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS. "Currently, researchers have no way of definitively diagnosing sporadic CJD except by autopsy." https://lnkd.in/epAib2h View in LinkedIn

BLOOD TRANSFUSION. "At least three vCJD cases out of 229 worldwide since 1980 are believed to have been contracted via blood transfusion rather than by eating contaminated meat. To minimize risk, blood banks in North America for about 15 years have turned away potential donors who spent three months or more in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996." https://lnkd.in/ehyZ7DA View in LinkedIn

LONG INCUBATION PERIOD. "Why prion-free guarantees are impossible: the disease has a long incubation period—long enough that an infected person would seem quite healthy and arouse no suspicion among hospital staff. Months can pass—and many patients exposed—before surgeons might learn of a CJD case and pull the tools out of use." 30-40 year incubation periods are generally accepted timeframes. https://lnkd.in/epAib2h View in LinkedIn

MAD COW IN BRITS. "In 2013, a study revealed that 1 in 2,000 people in the United Kingdom might harbour the infectious prion protein that causes vCJD." Remember: 30-40 year incubation periods; diagnosis at autopsy. https://lnkd.in/eukNKpe View in LinkedIn