we are (in my opinion), exposed to the TSE prion in so many different ways
in every day life, the potential for exposure and then becoming infected via
taking care of a loved one with TSE prion disease, in my opinion risk factor
there from is minimal, if proper precautions are taken, and even if they were
not, the chance of becoming infected from a kiss, or casual contact is low, but
I do not think it is zero, actually, far from it. I put this all together for a
documentation of the known facts to date, of the potential casual human to human
transmission. I did not put it together to scare anyone. with aerosol
transmission of the TSE prion a reality now, infectivity in urine and feces and
transmission there from being reality now with the TSE prion disease, I don’t
see how anyone can rule _out_ the potential for transmission of the TSE prion
via a kiss (a vehicle for transmission of the TSE prion via saliva), or even for
a cut or open wound (all a cut is and transmission there from, is an crude
inoculation of sorts, and inoculation has been proven to be an efficient mode of
transmission for the TSE prion disease), even the eye, from either one of the
body fluids now that how proven to be infections. I can’t see why we have such
safety protocols for laboratory workers working with the TSE prion disease, but
yet the same officials will say it’s o.k. for the public, friends, and or family
members to do just the opposite with their loved ones when succumbing to the CJD
TSE prion disease. don’t get me wrong, I did it too, and would probably do it
again as far as kissing my mom. but science is science, and the transmission
studies speak for themselves with the bodily fluids. simply put, which is all I
was saying, we can’t say never, and or that none of these cases to date, have
not been, and or will not be, a potential vehicle for transmission. I believe,
and this is my opinion, that more concern for casual transmission with body
fluids and materials there from, should be put forth to families with their
loved ones, and I think that the safety protocols there from should be revised,
to match that of the laboratory settings. again, this is my opinion. your
opinion, and or others here, may read the same science and feel different out
the findings. ...take care, kind regards, terry
HUMAN PRION AGENTS
FOR USE IN RESEARCH LABORATORIES
SECTION I - INFECTIOUS AGENT
Name: Creutzfeldt-Jakob agent, Kuru agent
Synonym or Cross Reference:: Subacute spongiform encephalopathy,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Kuru, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy
(TSE).
Characteristics: Filterable, self-replicating agent, slow infectious
pathogen, prion protein (PrP)
SECTION II - RECOMMENDED PRECAUTIONS
Containment Requirements: Biosafety level 3 facilities, practices and
containment equipment for activities involving these agents; also listed under
biosafety level 2 with special precautions; level of containment will depend on
the nature of the manipulations and the amount of sera, bio/necropsy materials
handled
Protective Clothing: Gown and gloves when handling potentially infectious
materials; eye protection may also be indicated
Other Precautions: Extreme care must be taken to avoid accidental
autoinoculation or other parenteral inoculations of infectious tissues and
fluids
SECTION III - HANDLING INFORMATION
Spills: Allow any potential aerosols to settle; wearing protective
clothing, gently cover spill with paper towel and apply 1N sodium hydroxide,
starting at perimeter and working towards the center; allow sufficient contact
time (1 hour) before clean up
Disposal: Decontaminate before disposal; steam sterilization (132·C for 1
hour), disinfection with 1N sodium hydroxide for 1 hour, incineration
Storage: In sealed containers that are appropriately labeled
The main precaution to be taken by laboratorians working with
prion-infected or contaminated material is to avoid accidental puncture of the
skin.3 Persons handling contaminated specimens should wear cut-resistant gloves
if possible. If accidental contamination of unbroken skin occurs, the area
should be washed with detergent and abundant quantities of warm water (avoid
scrubbing); brief exposure (1 minute to 1N NaOH or a 1:10 dilution of bleach)
can be considered for maximum safety.6 Additional guidance related to
occupational injury are provided in the WHO infection control guidelines.6
Unfixed samples of brain, spinal cord, and other tissues containing human prions
should be processed with extreme care in a BSL-2 facility utilizing BSL-3
practices.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Although the eventual total number of
variant CJD cases resulting from BSE transmission to humans is unknown, a review
of the epidemiological data from the United Kingdom indicates that BSE
transmission to humans is not efficient.9 The most prudent approach is to study
BSE prions at a minimum in a BSL-2 facility utilizing BSL-3 practices. When
performing necropsies on large animals where there is an opportunity that the
worker may be accidentally splashed or have contact with high-risk materials
(e.g., spinal column, brain) personnel should wear full body coverage personal
protective equipment (e.g., gloves, rear closing gown and face shield).
Disposable plasticware, which can be discarded as a dry regulated medical waste,
is highly recommended. Because the paraformaldehyde vaporization procedure does
not diminish prion titers, BSCs must be decontaminated with 1N NaOH and rinsed
with water. HEPA filters should be bagged out and incinerated. Although there is
no evidence to suggest that aerosol transmission occurs in the natural disease,
it is prudent to avoid the generation of aerosols or droplets during the
manipulation of tissues or fluids and during the necropsy of experimental
animals. It is further strongly recommended that impervious gloves be worn for
activities that provide the opportunity for skin contact with infectious tissues
and fluids.
The main precaution to be taken when working with prion-infected or
contaminated material is to avoid puncture of the skin. If accidental
contamination of skin occurs, the area is swabbed with In sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) for 5 minutes and then washed with copious amounts of water. Unfixed
samples of brain, spinal cord, and other tissues containing human prions should
be processed with extreme care at BSL 3.
Prions are characterized by extreme resistance to conventional inactivation
procedures including irradiation, boiling, dry heat, and chemicals (formalin,
betapropiolactone, alcohols). Sterilization of rodent brain extracts with high
titers of prions requires autoclaving at 132C for 4.5 hours. Denaturing organic
solvents such as phenol or chaotropic reagents such as guanidine isothiocyanate
or alkali such as NaOH can also be used for sterilization. Disposable
plasticware, which can be discarded as a dry waste, is highly recommended.
Although there is no evidence to suggest that aerosol transmission occurs
in the natural disease, it is prudent to avoid the generation of aerosols or
droplets during the manipulation of tissues or fluids and during the necropsy of
experimental animals. Formaldehyde-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues,
especially of the brain, remain infectious. Some investigators recommend that
formalin-fixed tissues from suspected cases of prion disease be immersed for 30
min in 96% formic acid or phenol before histopathologic processing, but such
treatment may severely distort the microscopic neuropathology.
another interesting aspect of the TSE prion disease is KURU ;
Figure 25. All cooking. including that of human flesh from diseased
kinsmen. was done in pits with steam made by pouring water over the hot stones,
or cooked in bamboo cylinders in the hot ashes. Children participated in both
the butchery and the handling of cooked meat, rubbing their soiled hands in
their armpits or hair, and elsewhere on their bodies. They rarely or never
washed. Infection with the kuru virus was most probably through the cuts and
abrasions of the skin. or from nose-picking, rye (eye...tss) rubbing, or mucosal
injury.
These detailed descriptions will be published elsewhere but have reaffirmed
the oral histories of endocannibalism in the Fore recorded previously12,22–24
and that this practice ceased abruptly at the time of Australian administrative
control over the kuru areas. Although isolated events might have occurred for a
few years after this prohibition, we are confident that new exposures of
individuals to kuru at mortuary feasts would not have occurred after 1960. Not
only have no cases of kuru been recorded in people born after 1959 (and only
nine were recorded in those born after 1956); but also all the 11 last recorded
cases of kuru that we report here were born before 1950. If any source of
infection remained, whether from surreptitious cannibalism, possible ground
contam-ination with human prions at sites where food was prepared, or other
lateral routes, we would expect individuals born after this period to have
kuru—especially since children are thought to have had shorter incubation
periods than adults. However, no such cases have been observed. Additionally,
although a fraction of hamster-adapted scrapie prions have been shown to survive
in soil for at least 3 years,25 the mortuary feast practices (during which the
entire body would be consumed) were undertaken so that any substantial
contamination of soil would not have occurred, and traditional bamboo knives and
leaf plates were burned after the feast. Furthermore, no clusters of kuru cases,
as seen earlier in the epidemic,26 have been recorded for many years....
Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery
Special Jury Prize Winner, Pacific International Documentary Film Festival
2011.
This is the true story of one of the most incredible and challenging
medical detective stories of the 20th Century; a history of human tragedy,
adventure and discovery. It is the story of the Fore, a Papuan community
immersed in cannibalistic mortuary practices and sorcery in one of the most
remote regions on the planet, and the tragic disease that threatened to wipe out
their entire population.
In 1961, a young Australian medical researcher, Michael Alpers, puts up his
hand to work on a new and strange disease in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New
Guinea. There, he teams up with an American outer, Dr Carleton Gajdusek, who has
been in the local Fore region since 1957. For Michael it is the beginning of a
lifelong obsession.
Together, they are amidst a major epidemic. It is killing over 200 people a
year with devastating effects. It mainly targets women and children. The local
people, the Fore, call the disease kuru, their word for shivering. They believe
it is caused by sorcery.
Michael and Carleton are baffled by the disease. There are no scientific
disciplines to guide them as they attempt to unravel its mysteries. By pure
chance, a link is made to a strange transmissible animal disease in sheep,
Scrapie. The two kuru researchers embark on a 10-year experiment to see if the
fatal degenerative brain disease in humans could be transmissible like
Scrapie.
The decision is made to perform an autopsy on a kuru victim and inoculate
the kuru material into a chimpanzee. Kigea, ayoung girl in the village is
identified as being in the early stages of kuru. Kigea’s family, gives Michael
permission to perform an autopsy upon her death.
A brain sample taken from Kigea after her death is flown to the USA and
injected into a chimpanzee called Daisy. While Michael follows the progress of
the transmission experiment, he starts to collate all the recorded data on kuru
and begins to suspect cannibalism as the cause of the spreadof the
disease.
Within two years, he diagnoses Daisy with kuru. This is a defining moment.
It confirms kuru is transmissible and can cross the species barrier. The
revelation, together with epidemiological data collated with anthropologist
Shirley Lindenbaum, links the Fore’s mortuary feasts (consumption of dead
relatives) to the transmission of kuru. Cannibalism is the cause, and its origin
is linked to a rare disease called Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease(CJD), but the story
of kuru is far from over.
The infecting agent is the first new pathogen – prions – to be discovered
in over 100 years. Research results in two Nobel prizes: it’s discoveries
turning scientific understanding upside down, causing rifts in the beliefs ofthe
science community.
Then Mad Cow Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE) reared its
head in the mid 1980s, and 10 years later the human variant CJD. All eyes turned
to kuru, the only model of a prion epidemic in human populations. Many unknowns
still surround prion diseases: there is no cure for kuru, or any of the prion
diseases. The effects are devastating and unprecedented incubation periods can
extend beyond 50 years.
Michael is the key and heart to this story, providing unique access to the
Fore people, and the world’s other leading authorities on the matter; including
Americans Prof. DC Gajdusek (Nobel Prize 1976), Prof. Stan Prusiner (Nobel Prize
1997), Prof Shirley Lindenbaum (Anthropologist) and British Prof. John Collinge
(Director, MRC Prion Unit, UK).
Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery combines history, science and
anthropology to tell a unique and ongoing ‘history of science’ documentary
spanning five decades. It intertwines the thinking of great minds, locally and
internationally, to reveal how this rare disease in the remote highlands of PNG
exploded to international attention and how Prion research has now revealed we
are all descendants of a remote past of cannibal practices.
Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery Australian scientist Michael Alpers
dedicated over 50 years to researching Kuru, an obscure and incurable brain
disease unique to the Fore people of New Guinea. Kuru was once thought to be a
psychosomatic illness, an infection, a genetic disorder, even a sorcerer's
curse, but Alpers' findings pointed to cannibalism as the culprit. Yet a recent
discovery has proven to be even more disturbing: the malady is linked to mad cow
disease and its human equivalent, variant CJD. With a decades-long incubation
period, could a larger outbreak be on its way?
human flesh taste very sweet
KURU EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PATROLS
Michael Alpers
First Reports
People of the Kuru region part 1
boy playing with animal bladder, blowing it up like a balloon. ...
People of the Kuru region part 2
Monday, November 19, 2012
Prion in Saliva of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy–Infected Cattle
please see full text ;
Sunday, October 27, 2013
A Kiss of a Prion: New Implications for Oral Transmissibility
kind regards,
terry
