Guest guest Posted June 23, 2006 Report Share Posted June 23, 2006 More deaths from mad cow disease predicted By Donald G. McNeil Jr. The New York Times Published: June 23, 2006 NEW YORK The long lives that some former cannibals enjoy before succumbing to a brain-wasting disease suggest that many more humans will eventually die of mad cow disease, according to a study released Friday. But several experts in such illnesses, called prion diseases - which are blamed for killing New Guinea cannibals and British eaters of infected beef - disagreed with that frightening implication of the study, which was published Friday in The Lancet, the British medical journal. These experts praised the rigorous work the authors of the report did to confirm that kuru, a disease that once decimated highland tribes in New Guinea, can incubate for 50 years in a few genetically protected people. But the experts said they thought the findings did not prove there would be future waves of deaths among people who ate beef from prion-infected cows in the 1980s. " That's a provocative conclusion, but I'm not sure it's totally plausible, " said Dr. David Westaway, a prion expert at the University of Toronto. Thus far, about 160 people, mostly in Britain, have died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which humans get from cows that had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. The authors chronicled the deaths and genetic makeup of 11 aging members of the Fore tribe who died from 1996 to 2004 of kuru, which can lie dormant for years but then start a quick, irreversible descent into dementia and death. Kuru killed thousands of Fore beginning in the 1920s and only began to fade after the Australian authorities in the 1950s outlawed the Fore practice of honoring their dead by butchering them with bamboo knives at mortuary feasts, eating them and - by some accounts - smearing themselves with brain tissue, which would drive infection into cuts and scratches. Scientists studying kuru eventually realized it was transmitted when misfolded prion proteins reached another brain and " taught " its proteins to misfold and congeal into a spongy mass. The new Lancet study relied on teams of local people who visited mountain villages for years, interviewing and asking for blood samples from anyone with symptoms. The 11 they found were all born between 1933 and 1949, and cannibalism died out by 1960. The lead author, Dr. John Collinge of University College, London, concluded that kuru could incubate as long as 56 years before killing. It has been known for years that people with a certain genetic marker die soonest of prion diseases. Nine of the 11 Fore did not have it. For that reason, Collinge predicted more waves of deaths among people who ate prion-infected beef decades ago, because most of the world also lacks that marker. But several experts, including Westaway, said in interviews that they disagreed there would be a great many future cases. Kuru is a human disease and is better at infecting people than mad cow disease is, they argued, and Fore cannibals came into contact with brain matter, while most people eat meat, which has low concentrations of prions. NEW YORK The long lives that some former cannibals enjoy before succumbing to a brain-wasting disease suggest that many more humans will eventually die of mad cow disease, according to a study released Friday. But several experts in such illnesses, called prion diseases - which are blamed for killing New Guinea cannibals and British eaters of infected beef - disagreed with that frightening implication of the study, which was published Friday in The Lancet, the British medical journal. These experts praised the rigorous work the authors of the report did to confirm that kuru, a disease that once decimated highland tribes in New Guinea, can incubate for 50 years in a few genetically protected people. But the experts said they thought the findings did not prove there would be future waves of deaths among people who ate beef from prion-infected cows in the 1980s. " That's a provocative conclusion, but I'm not sure it's totally plausible, " said Dr. David Westaway, a prion expert at the University of Toronto. Thus far, about 160 people, mostly in Britain, have died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which humans get from cows that had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. The authors chronicled the deaths and genetic makeup of 11 aging members of the Fore tribe who died from 1996 to 2004 of kuru, which can lie dormant for years but then start a quick, irreversible descent into dementia and death. Kuru killed thousands of Fore beginning in the 1920s and only began to fade after the Australian authorities in the 1950s outlawed the Fore practice of honoring their dead by butchering them with bamboo knives at mortuary feasts, eating them and - by some accounts - smearing themselves with brain tissue, which would drive infection into cuts and scratches. Scientists studying kuru eventually realized it was transmitted when misfolded prion proteins reached another brain and " taught " its proteins to misfold and congeal into a spongy mass. The new Lancet study relied on teams of local people who visited mountain villages for years, interviewing and asking for blood samples from anyone with symptoms. The 11 they found were all born between 1933 and 1949, and cannibalism died out by 1960. The lead author, Dr. John Collinge of University College, London, concluded that kuru could incubate as long as 56 years before killing. It has been known for years that people with a certain genetic marker die soonest of prion diseases. Nine of the 11 Fore did not have it. For that reason, Collinge predicted more waves of deaths among people who ate prion-infected beef decades ago, because most of the world also lacks that marker. But several experts, including Westaway, said in interviews that they disagreed there would be a great many future cases. Kuru is a human disease and is better at infecting people than mad cow disease is, they argued, and Fore cannibals came into contact with brain matter, while most people eat meat, which has low concentrations of prions. Defending this corruption on which you are sat You tell me what to think, you tell me this and that `Freedom is O.K. you scum` but make sure it`s never used In your defence of liberty I always stand accused Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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