Faculty Bibliography

The epidemic of mad cow disease in England has focused worldwide attention on the human version of the ailment, the fatal malady known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease affects on average about one person in a million worldwide each year. Now that an expert British committee has tentatively linked it to mad cow disease, a question is raised: How many, if any, of these cases are caused by something in the diet or environment. The natural history of the mysterious malady may shed light on its cause, and may also help clarify the nature of other brain-destroying diseases such as Alzheimer's, to which Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease seems related by symptoms and pathology. With both diseases, waxy deposits known as amyloid plaques are seen under the microscope in stricken nerve cells

The epidemic of mad cow disease in England has focused worldwide attention on the human version of the ailment, the fatal malady known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is one of a small group of obscure diseases called spongiform encephalopathies because they produce holes in various areas of the brain, giving it a pitted appearance like Swiss cheese. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease affects on average about one person in a million worldwide each year. Now that an expert British committee has tentatively linked it to mad cow disease, a question is raised: how many, if any, of these cases are caused by something in the diet or environment? Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease usually strikes people in their 50s and 60s, after taking years or even decades to develop. But once symptoms begin, the course is swift and relentless. Destruction of brain cells impairs an individual's ability to think, see, speak and move. Muscles go into spasm, becoming rigid and jerky. Balance is lost. The dementia that develops mimics Alzheimer's disease, a related disorder that is not classified as a spongiform disease

Many of the 10 British patients afflicted with a new variant of a fatal brain disease possibly linked to mad cow disease had behavioral and emotional changes that initially fooled doctors into thinking they had psychiatric disorders, according to the first published scientific report about the cases, in Lancet on Apr 6, 1996. Brain wave tracings did not show the changes that are usually observed in traditional cases of the human brain disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Reacting to the epidemic of mad cow disease in Britain, the WHO on Apr 3, 1996 recommended a worldwide ban on feeding sheep, goat, cattle and other animal tissues to livestock as part of an effort to prevent the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease from expanding further in the animal or human food chain. The health agency also urged all countries to intensify efforts to monitor for mad cow disease and its human version, a fatal malady known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

The epidemic of mad cow disease in England has focused attention on the human version of the ailment, the fatal malady known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, one of a small group of obscure diseases called spongiform encephalopthies because they produce holes in various areas of the brain. Now that it has been tentatively linked to mad cow disease, the question has been raised of how many, if any, of these cases are caused by something in the diet or environment

Reacting to the mad cow disease epidemic in Britain, the US livestock industry and veterinary medical groups said on Mar 29, 1996 that they will immediately establish a voluntary ban on the use of cattle and sheep parts in animal feed

Former Sen Paul E. Tsongas (D-MA) has developed a serious new complication of the therapy he received for cancer 10 years ago and was admitted to a Boston hospital on Mar 28, 1996. Tsongas is being treated with antibiotics for an infection resulting from the complication, a condition in which the bone marrow produces white and red cells that are immature and too few

Former Sen. Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts has developed a serious new complication of the therapy he received for cancer 10 years ago and was admitted to a Boston hospital for treatment yesterday, the hospital said. Tsongas, a candidate for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, is being treated with antibiotics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for a blood infection resulting from the new complication, a condition known as myelodysplasia. Tsongas, 55, a lawyer in Boston, began to experience fatigue last November, said Dr. David G. Nathan, president of Dana-Farber

Federal officials are confident that the mad cow disease found in Britain has not occurred in the United States and that existing policies are adequate to protect the beef supply. The chief reasons for confidence, agriculture officials say, are that mad cow disease has never been identified in the United States and the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the human version of mad cow disease is known, has remained unchanged since 1979. This contrasts with the situation in Britain, where there has been an epidemic of mad cow disease that has stricken some 162,000 animals since 1986. Cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Britain have risen to 55 in 1994 from 28 in 1985, including a cluster of patients more youthful than had previously been known

Federal officials are confident that the mad cow disease found in Britain has not occurred in the US and that existing policies are adequate to protect the beef supply. A meeting of 70 animal and public health experts convened by the Agriculture Dept reviewed current policies the week of Mar 17, 1996 and concluded without recommending any further safeguards. Nonetheless, the department said it would increase the number of cattle brains routinely tested for mad cow disease