Thursday, September 5, 2013

Prions in New Hampshire



Prions are believed to be the cause of death for one individual in New Hampshire, USA. The patient most likely had sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). This is not to be confused with the variant form (vCJD). vCJD is usually associated with consuming meat products of animals suffering from spongiform ecphalopathies (e.g. "mad cow disease"). Too bad this wasn't a case of vCJD. That really would have been newsworthy.