A man
developed an extremely fatal brain disorder after eating squirrel brains. The 61
year-old-man from New York was brought to the hospital, Rochester Regional
Health, after he experienced a decline in his thinking abilities. He further
felt like he was losing touch with reality, he even lost his ability to walk
without support. The man’s MRI revealed a striking finding, the man’s brain scan
looked similar to the scan of a brain with a fatal brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD). The disease is caused by an infectious protein called prions and
only a few hundred cases have ever been reported. The outbreak of Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease was first seen in the 1980s and 1990s in United Kingdom because of
consuming contaminated beef, for this reason, the disease is more commonly
known as mad cow disease.
However, in this case, there was another dietary habit that raised this man’s risk of developing CJD. According to his family, he enjoyed hunting and that he had eaten squirrel brains. Although, it was unclear whether the man consumed just parts of a squirrel’s brain, an entire squirrel brain or just contaminated squirrel meat. اربح
CJD affects 1 in 1 million people each year
CJD affects about 1 in 1 million people each year, worldwide. The progressive neurological disorder is a debilitating disease that progresses quickly and within a year of diagnosis, usually results in death. The disease is because of a prion protein that leads to lesions in the brain. CJD has three different variants, it is either inherited, caused because of an exposure to the infected tissue from the nervous system or brain or “sporadic” type which does not have an environmental or genetic cause. لعبة فلوس حقيقية The most common type of CJD is the sporadic type and, according to the National Institute of Health, is responsible for 85 percent of the cases. موقع حقيقي لربح المال
CJD is so
rare that the doctors were surprised four different cases of the disease occurred
in a time span of just 6 months. The number of cases brought in, based on the
population of the Rochester area was higher than expected. This is when the doctors
came across a case tied to squirrel brains.
The MRI
finding and a test showed specific proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid of the
patient, indicating the disease. However, the disease can only be confirmed by
testing brain tissue on autopsy after death. Unfortunately, the patient passed
away after being diagnosed of the disease. It is important to promptly diagnose
CJD because any delay can cause the infectious prions to contaminate the equipment
used on patients with the disease. This can cause a transmission of the
condition to other if the equipment is not cleaned properly. CJD is rare, therefore,
diagnosis may be delayed. Moreover, once the doctor suggests CJD, it takes
around 2 weeks to get the test results. In addition to this, the case highlights
an importance of a need for doctors to keep a differential diagnosis of CJD in
mind, moreover, for hospitals to have policies concerning infection control
when it comes to CJD.
