Re: Mad Cow Disease, has any human ever had it, or died from it?
SAK
My 15 yr. old niece asked me that last night. She wanted to know how it started, and if any human could get it, or has gotten it, or died from it.
Thank you for your answers!
Mad Cow Disease is caused by a misshaped protein that accumulates primarily in the brain, spinal cord and lower intestine of cattle. This makes it very different from other infectious diseases, as it isn’t a virus, bacteria, fungus or parasite. The misshaped protein appears to cause normal instances of the protein to become misshapen too, but this is an extremely slow process: it takes about 3.5 years for the cattle to be affected by the accumulation of bad proteins. In humans, it takes about twice as long or longer.
The human version, called nvCJD, has affected about 200 people, virtually all of whom lived in England or France in the 1980′s, and most of whom ate the body parts listed above. Based on genetic variation in the human protein, up to 200 more people who were more resistant are expected to die from the same group (1980′s English beef eaters). The practice of feeding cattle remains back to cattle has virtually eliminated the misshapen protein’s propagation. The risky body parts are also no longer allowed in the human food supply. Additionally, 85% of cattle are slaughtered by 18 months of age for meat consumption. Since the protein accumulates so slowly, these animals would not be contagious even if they had been exposed to the causative agent. No one in North America has ever contracted nvCJD from domestic beef.
It becomes CJD in humans who can catch it from eating infected animals and it has already killed a lot of people in the U.K.
Yes, a few humans have gotten and died from it. Most were in the UK, but there a cannibal tribes that have had outbreaks of it too. It is caused by a prion (which is a mutated protien molecule) that attatches to protien molecules in the brain and mutates them to match its shape. Then there are two which go out to mutate two more and so on and so forth. However, you have to have a very specific genetic makeup to be susceptible to it. Most people aren’t so it isn’t a raging epidemic. It is caused by animals being fed protien from infected animals. The prion is amazingly hardy and virtually impossible to destroy for some reason.
yes they have died from it it is a disease transmitted by eating beef and there have been fatalities