Author Topic: Mad cows in New Hampshire ?  (Read 10946 times)

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Offline vesta111

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Mad cows in New Hampshire ?
« on: June 13, 2014, 04:20:46 PM »
(CNN) -- Health officials have confirmed that a patient who underwent neurosurgery at a New Hampshire hospital earlier this year had Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

The death, and suspicions that the patient may have had the devastating brain ailment, prompted authorities in two states to warn that as many as 13 patients may have been exposed to surgical equipment used during the patient's surgery, thus to the same disease.

The now-deceased patient had undergone neurosurgery at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester. The patient was later suspected of having sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare, rapidly progressing and always-fatal degenerative brain disease.

But by the time this diagnosis was suspected, equipment used in the patient's surgery had been used several other operations. This raised the possibility that the equipment might have been contaminated -- especially since normal sterilization procedures are not enough to get rid of the disease proteins, known as prions, tied to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- thus potentially exposing the other patients to infection.

The patient's death spurred the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to announce September 4 that eight other patients at the same Manchester hospital were being monitored for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Massachusetts health authorities noted the next day that five Cape Cod Hospital patients may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease too because their surgeons this summer later used the same potentially contaminated medical equipment as in the New Hampshire facility.

The diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was confirmed by the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, which reported its conclusion to New Hampshire's health department and Catholic Medical Center on Friday.

"Though we are not surprised by the test results, we are saddened by the toll this disease takes on families," said Dr. Jose Montero, New Hampshire's public health director.

People with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease typically show signs of rapidly progressing dementia, impaired vision and personality changes, among other symptoms, according to the National Institutes of Health. Yet while it can be suspected, the only way the disease can be confirmed is through tests conducted after a person's death.

The status of the five southeast Massachusetts patients who'd been warned wasn't immediately known Friday night. The eight being monitored at Manchester's Catholic Medical Center have been told about the original patient's "autopsy results."

"We let them know we will continue to help and support them and to monitor their health going forward," said hospital president Dr. Joseph Pepe, "even though the risk is extremely low that any of these patients was infected."

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has a long incubation period before symptoms appear -- sometimes up to 50 years -- according the National Institutes of Health. There's no test, so it may take many years before these patients would know if they were infected.

About 300 people a year in the United States come down with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC has said that no cases of the disease linked to the use of contaminated medical equipment have been reported in the United States since 1976.

Most medical devices are sterilized by heat, but the World Health Organization recommends the use of a caustic chemical like sodium hydroxide to disinfect equipment that may have come in contact with tissues that could cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
 
CNN's Kevin Conlon and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.
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Oh Yippy , This report comes on top of a beef recall on top of a chicken recall, and it is not the food ingested but blamed on the hospitals in our area that may have sliced and diced patients with contaminated equipment.   

Reminds me of the people that jump out of planes that pack their own shoots, do I have to before any kind of invasive surgery head for the hospital, collect bedding and all the implements to be used to cut my body open to bring home and sterilize myself ????

So how on earth did the disease get on surgery equipment in the first place ????

I have a big beef with hospital workers from the people who bring in meals to the Doctors and nurses that wear rings of any kind.

 Was it the Spanish Flu that spread so fast as the nurses refused to remove their wedding rings and the nasty little bugs even with a short hand wash survived to kill thousands ?

Money and cost comes in here.    I saw this first hand in the early 80's when the facility I worked at with patients who were incontinent mostly posted a policy change, it was a hoot for me but others took it seriously.

The directive started out saying that the family's of the patients were complaining about the nurses caring for the patients wore gloves when handling their family and this caused them the family discomfort.  Some mumbo-jumbo about this is their home and when you care for ill family members you do not wear gloves.

There were 3 other service wives working with me at that time and we hit the Officers Club at Portsmouth VA. looking for a Doctor who could give us advice on how to cover our Ass and not bring home to our family's something we caught from cleaning up body crap of strangers with our bare hands.   When one has 20 human lives to protect in a 8 hour shift there is little time to spend a 15 minute wash of hand between patients.

We got a print out of the diseases we could get, huge, so we posted it on the board in 3-4 places and waited.    Talk about a fire fight, the notice we posted was taken down and we were now informed that we were responsible   for buying and wearing protective gear,  as eye glasses were not covered, if a combative patient beat the heck out of you.

Me I went to the local drug store and bought boxes of gloves, face masks, didn't cost allot of money at the time.

Long time ago, but things have not changed, perhaps gotten worse and with the new Obama care,  If one is ill and lucky enough to be admitted to any hospital, bring along face masks, gloves and wipe down the rails to your bed with Clorox Wipes.

Allow no one including your doctor to lay a finger on you without gloves, speak up and demand sanitary  conditions.

Same with home care nurses, when they come to visit, they should be wearing gloves for your protection, who knows where they have been before they got to you.



 



 
 



































 







   

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Offline Thor

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Re: Mad cows in New Hampshire ?
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2014, 04:27:51 AM »
Vesta, have you visited NH lately?  You know, that C-J disease IS contagious!!

:bolt:
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Offline Wineslob

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Re: Mad cows in New Hampshire ?
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2014, 05:19:31 PM »
“The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

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Offline vesta111

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Re: Mad cows in New Hampshire ?
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2014, 06:50:17 AM »
Vesta, have you visited NH lately?  You know, that C-J disease IS contagious!!

:bolt:

 :cheersmate:  :lol:  Well so is foot in mouth disease and I have had that for over 50 years, ain't killed me yet.

Offline JohnnyReb

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Re: Mad cows in New Hampshire ?
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2014, 08:42:38 AM »
:cheersmate:  :lol:  Well so is foot in mouth disease and I have had that for over 50 years, ain't killed me yet.
:lol:
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