Remember Mad Cow Disease?

[Catherine Vincent]

I had lunch with an acquaintance today and she told me her cousin's husband is in the hospital diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). I was wondering why this wasn't reported in the local news to warn everyone that this disease is still out there.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgTu93zvLOXH-q8ZUwjoYAl0Y0SwD921TUO00
Massachusetts patient tested for mad cow disease
By STEVE LeBLANC – Jul 20, 2008

BOSTON (AP) — Public health officials in Massachusetts are investigating whether a patient in a Cape Cod hospital has the human form of mad cow disease.

Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press that tests are being done to see if the patient has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and whether it's the variant attributed to mad cow.

There have only been three cases of the human form of mad cow disease reported in the United States in the last several years, and officials say it's extremely unlikely the patient in Cape Cod Hospital has the disease.

Mad cow disease — medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE — causes spongy holes in the brain.

Eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal human malady.

DeMaria says it will take a few more days before the test results are available. He said there are about a half-dozen cases reported every year in Massachusetts and about 300 nationwide.

A spokesman for Cape Cod Hospital confirmed the facility notified public health officials Thursday of a patient with test results that require reporting. He said hospital officials were told the illness was not contagious and that there was no cause for concern.

If there are still cases being reported nationwide, I think there is still cause for concern.

[valerief]

1. I heard it a few times in the Mass. local news. Of course, those

West Nile mosquitoes and missing Rockefeller kid take up most of the news time (the time that sports doesn't use up).

[Kittycat]

2. Missing Rockefeller kid...

I actually hadn't heard about that one.

I also don't listen to local news.

[valerief]

3. I was listening to get the weather. For two days there were non-stop

Amber Alerts in the news scrolls. I think the scrolls were even on regular programming. Anyway, I think I heard one of the big 3 morning shows talking about how the kid may be sailing to Bermuda with her father. I don't care. Why do I know this nonsense anyway?!!!!

[Mind_your_head]

8. What missing Rockefeller kid?

Wha?

Guess I must have 'missed it' after paying attention to the "puppy eats baby" and "cop tasers 16 y/o with broken back" and "jumpers from the GG bridge have a broken 'help' phone" stories......NOT that it's not important, but if the Constitution goes 'down'....as it is currently 'going', we've got NUTHIN'....absolutely NOTHING to 'work with'. No societal structure, laws, rules, ACCOUNTABILITY....nothing.

FOCUS on what's important! (and in the grand scheme of things, the rockefeller kid, the puppy/baby/taser/jumpers of the GGB stories won't/don't mean a d*mn thing, unless the FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF LAW are in their rightful place).

Peace,
M_Y_H

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Those Rockerfeller kids don't seem to have much luck being found, once

they've gone missing.

[uppityperson]

4. k&r with thanks as hadn't heard of this case.

Poor guy.

[Esra Star]

5. How can we forget it ?

Denny Crane is always mentioning that he has it.

[Truth4Justice]

6. Mad Cow Disease? Never heard of it. Now back to regular programming.

of the "consumers" out here in TV land.

[nam78_two]

7. K&R.nt

[Tindalos]

9. Update confirms Creutzfeldt-Jakob

Test Confirms Cape patient has Rare Brain Disease (Boston Globe)

>An elderly patient on Cape Cod has tested positive for a rare brain ailment called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, state public health officials announced this afternoon.

>Each year in Massachusetts, six or seven people are diagnosed with the degenerative disorder, which in most cases leads to rapid death.

>The disease, known for decades among neurologists, first came to widespread public attention during the mad cow scare of the 1980s, when cases of the disorder were
>linked to tainted beef in the United Kingdom. But only three such cases have ever been identified in the United States, and all of those were in patients who had come
>>from Great Britain.

>Further tests will be conducted to determine the cause of the Cape patient's illness, but state disease trackers said there is nothing to suggest that the patient's case
>is associated with mad cow disease. Instead, like virtually all cases in the United States, it is almost certainly not linked to any obvious external cause.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/07/test_confirms_c.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7




CJD is also a horrible way to die.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Taking a page out of Enron where this government allowed the politically

connected company to exploit California, and the teacher pension fund in Florida, does anybody have any doubt, that if there is a rancher with questionable beef, that the FDA would be intentionally blinded by a Bush crony appointee so the meat would be sent to a blue state?

[cascadiance]

12. Unlike Europe and Japan, the U.S. and Canada don't regulate poultry and swine being used...

... as food for cattle, and vice versa (cattle parts for poultry and swine).

Now the U.S. will argue that poultry and swine don't have mad cow disease, but other scientists have insisted that swine are carriers, even if they don't have serious outward symptoms of the disease. They argue that our not regulating this sort of feeding practice is a time bomb in the making, since cattle can still in effect get disease ridden feed, even if it is not cattle parts like it was before.

Perhaps this case is showing that scenario! Hope not!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/waste020504.cfm

Once again Europe and Japan have more responsible governments than our messed up mess!