I got this from the /www.madcow.org/ webpage. It's got some really creepy
looking cows and scans of what peoples spongiforme brains look like after
they get CJD, the human form...
British CJD deaths rise in last quarter of 1998
Thu, Mar 18, 1999 By John von Radowitz, PA News
A leading medical journal today forecast a "grim outlook" following
reports of an unexpected increase in deaths from
the human version of mad cow disease. Since new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease first emerged in 1996, it has
claimed an average of two or three lives every three months. But in the
final quarter of last year nine deaths were
recorded, setting alarm bells ringing.
The increase, which has already received much publicity, was reported in
the Lancet today in a research letter from
the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh. nvCJD is a distinct strain
different from other forms of CJD but similar to the
related cattle disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. The disease is
thought to have appeared as a result of
people eating BSE infected beef in the 1980s. Because of its long
incubation period it is not known how many victims
might succumb to the disease in the future.
The new figures are the first indication that there might be an epidemic,
although only time will tell if this is the case.
The figures could be a statistical blip. In an editorial today the Lancet
said no one should stop being concerned about
new variant CJD. Whether or not there was a serious epidemic the two "take
home" messages from the tragedy
remained the same, said the journal.
The first was that feeding cattle sheep remains -- thought to be the
source of BSE -- is "dangerous folly". The second
was that when a threat is posed to public health "precipitant reactions by
politicians without any proper attempt either
to inform themselves or the public is counter-productive".
The Lancet added: "The outlook, from many aspects, is grim.
"In the UK, the BSE Inquiry will almost certainly publish an anodyne
report replete with hand wringing but conclude
that no one is to blame. "Worldwide, animal feeding practices will
continue to be driven by the prospect of a quick
profit and not by considerations of sound animal husbandry. "Clinicians,
though, now have at least one good reason to
maintain a high index of suspicion concerning unusual presentations of
diseases, and to support strict surveillance of
these when they occur."
Concern at rise in CJD deaths
Wed, Mar 17, 1999 By Helen William, PA News
There has been an unusually high increase in the number of deaths from the
the new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease, the human form of mad cow disease, it was reported today. Since
1996 there have been an average of two
or three deaths every quarter from nvCJD, but nine deaths were recorded in
the last three months of 1998, according
to the CJD Surveillance Unit.
Scientists remain uncertain about whether the sudden and unexplained
increase could snowball into an epidemic within
the next few years. The deaths "are a cause for concern", Simon Cousens of
the unit told BBC's Six O'Clock News.
"They are bad news rather than good news but how bad news they are is
difficult to tell. We are going to have to wait
another six or nine months to see what numbers of cases occurring over a
period are."
Professor John Collinge, a member of the Government-appointed committee
which advises on CJD, said: "I think it is
concerning that we see more cases of new variant CJD confirmed over the
past few months. "It is too early to know
what that means. I am personally confirmed that the country may face a
serious epidemic of this disease -- it is
entirely possible."
In January, the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, urged the
Government to retain its current
beef-on-the-bone ban. Current confirmed cases of nvCJD include three in
1995, 10 in both 1996 and 1997 and 15 in
1998. There has been one confirmed case this year.
Comment (webmaster): The only new factoids to mull over in the research
letter:
"However, 41% of the 39 cases were reported and diagnosed within 1 month
of death, 79% within 2 months, 97%
within 5 months, and all within 6 months. Thus any deaths from variant CJD
that have already occurred but that have
yet to be reported or confirmed are only likely to affect the numbers of
deaths as far back as the third quarter of 1998.
"
"Up to March, 2, 1999, 39 deaths from variant CJD had been reported to the
National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Surveillance Unit (table)."
A bizarre conclusion can be drawn from these quotes: the UK is not
counting as a confirmed case someone with a
clinical diagnosis of CJD in conjunction with age under 40 years, a
positive tonsil biopsy, and a positive brain biopsy
with strain type 4, provided the patient is still alive. But nvCJD can
drag on for two or more years. So how many
highly probable cases are they holding back?
Tragedy of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [editorial]
Lancet 353, Number 9157 20 March 1999 The unfinished tragedy of variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in the
UK begins with a distasteful practice; progresses through protracted
scientific investigation, hampered by political
farce; and culminates in continued uncertainty--is there to be the massive
epidemic of variant CJD that was predicted
in 1996, or is the scare a product of an imaginative diagnostic definition
and doom-mongering statistical
prognostication?
For physicians unconcerned by these questions, because the prospect of
variant CJD affecting themselves or their
patients appears remote, or because the number of deaths to date (39) is
trivial compared with the toll of more
common diseases or of natural disasters, it is worth briefly reviewing the
story of variant CJD so far: there are lessons
to be learned by physicians and politicians worldwide.
A spongiform encephalopathy affecting cattle (BSE) in the UK was
identified in 1986. To the end of January, 1999,
173 718 cases had been recorded in the UK. BSE, which is pathologically
similar to a spongiform encephalopathy of
sheep (scrapie), was attributed to the feeding of sheep offal to cattle.
This distasteful practice was banned in 1988.
Notifications of BSE decreased, but in January this year there were still
297 reported new cases. After considerable
public disquiet, a BSE inquiry was convened in March, 1998, and was due to
report in June, 1999. The inquiry will ,
predictably, not report on time.
Meanwhile, in March, 1996, a unit set up to monitor spongiform
encephalopathies in human beings (the CJD
Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh, UK) reported ten cases of CJD (variant CJD)
which appeared to be clinically and
pathologically distinct from sporadic and other varieties of CJD (Lancet
1996; 347: 921-25). An understandable
suspicion that eating BSE-infected beef was to blame for variant CJD
provoked mayhem: sale of UK beef was
banned throughout the European Union; millions of UK cattle were
slaughtered; and the UK public were treated to the
unedifying spectacles of a senior politician affirming his belief in the
safety of UK beef by feeding hamburgers to his
children.
First signs of scientific proof that BSE may be responsible for variant
CJD appeared in 1997, with a report that
infective prions associated with BSE and with variant CJD appeared
identical. Still, the vaunted epidemic in human
beings failed to materialise. Notifications to the CJD Surveillance Unit
varied (insignificantly) from zero to four per
quarter from the first quarter of 1995 to the third quarter of 1998.
Then there was a disquieting change in notification rate, reported in a
fast-tracked Research letter in this week's issue
(p 979) . In the last quarter of 1998, there were nine deaths from variant
CJD notified to the Surveillance Unit. This
increase is statistically significant, but it is by no means conclusive
evidence that people who were infected by eating
beef before sheep offal was banned from the foodchain are now reaching the
end of their variant-CJD incubation
periods and that worse is to come. Curiously, this information on
notifications of variant CJD has been in the public
domain for over 2 months without arousing comment. A glance at the graph
might lead even the most
statistically-naive observer to wonder if something unusual is happening.
Perhaps scientists, doctors, and journalists are
tired of a topic that since the furore of 1996 seems to have degenerated
into political pointscoring.
They should not tire of the topic. Whether there is a drastic epidemic of
variant CJD in the offing, or whether there is
not, does not alter the take-home warning messages of the tragedy. The
first is that to feed cattle--ruminants equipped
efficiently to digest only grass and other fodder--neural tissue from a
species known to be prone to an endemic brain
disease is a dangerous folly. The second, that when a threat is posed to
the public health, precipitant reactions by
politicians without any proper attempt either to inform themselves or the
public is counterproductive.
The outlook, from many aspects, is grim. In the UK, the BSE inquiry will
almost certainly publish an anodyne report
replete with hand-wringing but conclude that no one is to blame.
Worldwide, animal-feeding practices will continue to
be driven by the prospect of a quick profit and not by considerations of
sound animal husbandry. Clinicians, though,
now have at least one good reason to maintain a high index of suspicion
concerning unusual presentations of diseases,
and to support strict surveillance of these when they occur.
Deaths from nvCJD
The Lancet 353, Number 9157 20 March 1999 [research letter]
R G Will, S N Cousens , C P Farrington, P G Smith, RS G Knight, J W
Ironside
...The death rate from variant CJD per year has remained approximately
constant until recently. We report an
unusually high number of deaths from variant CJD in the last quarter of
1998.
Up to March, 2, 1999, 39 deaths from variant CJD had been reported to the
National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Surveillance Unit (table). From the beginning of 1996 to the end of the
third quarter of 1998, the number of deaths per
quarter appears relatively constant, with the largest number of deaths in
a single quarter, five, occurring in the first
quarter of 1996. In the last quarter of 1998 there were nine deaths.
Given the total number of deaths (35) observed over the 3 years,
1996-1998, the probability of observing nine or more
deaths in a quarter, if the death rate from variant CJD was constant over
the period, is low (p=0.025). One possible
explanation is that the underlying rate of mortality has been increasing
over time. If deaths have been occurring at a
constant rate from sometime in 1995 onwards, then the plot of cumulative
mortality (figure) should be linear (apart
from any random variation). However, from the second quarter of 1995 to
the end of 1998 there is some evidence of
non-linearity (p=0.03), compatible with an increasing mortality rate.
Restricting this analysis to the period up to and
including the third quarter of 1998 reveals no evidence of increasing
mortality.
The unusually high number of deaths from variant CJD occurring in the last
quarter of 1998 should be interpreted with
caution. The recorded number of deaths could have increased because of
improvements in case ascertainment.
However, we consider that ascertainment since 1996 is likely to have been
almost complete over the age range of
observed cases (about 15-55 years). Furthermore, even if there had been
under-ascertainment of cases, it seems
unlikely that there would have been a sudden improvement towards the end
of 1998.
The occurrence of variant CJD cases has been monitored closely since 1996
and this is not the first occasion on which
statistical analyses to test for a change in the mortality rate have been
done. The p values quoted take no account of
sequential hypothesis testing and therefore overstate the real statistical
significance of this observation. This analysis
takes no account of delays in reporting and confirmation of deaths from
variant CJD to the surveillance unit. However,
41% of the 39 cases were reported and diagnosed within 1 month of death,
79% within 2 months, 97% within 5
months, and all within 6 months.
Thus any deaths from variant CJD that have already occurred but that have
yet to be reported or confirmed are only
likely to affect the numbers of deaths as far back as the third quarter of
1998. The identification of additional deaths in
the two or three most recent quarters would tend to strengthen the
evidence in favour of increasing mortality.
Although the number of deaths in the last quarter of 1998 was unusual, we
do not know if this level of mortality will be
sustained. The number of variant CJD deaths during the coming years will
provide a clearer indication of whether the
apparent increase in deaths towards the end of 1998 was a chance
observation or marks a change in the underlying
mortality rate.
How much nvCJD is really known?
22 Mar 99 webmaster opinion
The surge in nvCJD at the end of 1998 was both baffling and instructive --
everyone interviewed was talking about
deaths from nvCJD, not the confirmed case load.
This means a patient under 35 with a clinical diagnosis of CJD, a positive
brain biopsy, anomalous EEG, plus a positive
tonsil test is not counted if still living. It is ridiculous to wait for
such a patient to die before being counted. The
population of England is so small that anyone under 35 with CJD could
safely be called nvCJD on age alone, given that
there would be 1-2 errors per decade.
The explosive but unwelcome14 Jan 1999 Lancet article from Collinge's
group described 9 cases of nvCJD among 20
tonsil tests. Looking once again at table 2, which I recommend strongly to
reporters, 5 were still alive, ages at onset
average 25.8. Clinical duration in the four that died was 17.9 months (28,
26, 5.5). The five still living averaged 14.6
months, with one greater than 24 months. [ Lancet full text free to
non-subscribers who register.]
It seems fair to say that 24 months typical duration of symptoms means
looking at nvCJD deaths as of March 1999
[given two month lag in reporting] is roughly looking at multiply
confirmed diagnoses of nvCJD as of Jan 1997. The
public and press are getting excited over some very stale data. However,
no question that there was a deliberate
subtext to the news: get ready for really worse news shortly.
Normally no one would use a strongly lagging indicator such as deaths when
public policy and research funding
decisions need an upper bound leading indicator and the best possible
current view of the scope of epidemic. What
public benefit is there in downplaying the known incidence?
They could easily go over their referral history and replot their data by
date of clinical onset. That would be a far
better predictor of the epidemic than this outdated analysis they give us
now. Yes, there would be some errors but that
is what error bars and statistians are for.
Note Labor/DoH/SEAC are very very careful not to disclose any data on
average clinical duration of the 39 deaths.
To disclose this simple data point is to disclose the official time-warp.
Vicky Rimer is said to have finally have been
confirmed to have had nvCJD. That case had a clinical duration of 5-6
years.
Further signs that England is going back to a non-disclosure policy that
served them so poorly during the BSE years:
-- Surgically removed organs and highway accident caseshave been tested
for CJD but no results released.
--Hospital deaths have been tested for CJD but no results released
-- The CJD monitoring unit has applied for additional funding due to the
number of referrals but discloses little about
the percent running positive despite immense experience by now.
Going through my files, I came across this commentary in Nature dated 16
Jan 1997 by three of the same authors of
the latest Lancet piece. This latest clumsy cover-up reminds me of the
Three Stooges tripping over themselves on a
bank heist. Don't they realize reporters have access to Nature?
The sole figure in the 1997 paper gives graphically the date of onset, the
date of referral, the date of confirmed
diagnosis, and the date of death for each of the first 14 cases of nvCJD
[sorted by date of onset, not date of
confirmation]. Onset is nowhere defined but let us suppose it is clinical
signs. Cousens and Smith supply an advanced
statistical modelling approach to the future.
Are we to believe that these authors never extended their graph from 14 to
39? Of course they update this figure for
their own records -- they just chose not include it in the Lancet article.
What a pity they didn't simply revise and update
their predictions based on a tripling of the data. Of course they have
done that -- they just chose not to release it.
Had they provided the onset data but not the model, some reporter could
have run the model ("resulting in a
proportional decrease or increase in the numbers of table 2" pg 198). It
sounds like the real data must be far worse
than scenarios in the 1997 paper which had a worse case of 13,000 deaths.
To my best knowledge there has been an
absolute crack-down on releasing any more dates of onset since this
article appeared.
Times from onset to referral averaged 13.9 months: (26, 24, 21, 12, 17,
13, 10, 14, 8, 15, 7, 14, 6, 7)
...(7 cases had onset in 1994, 6 cases in 1995, 1 in 1996)
Times from referral to death averaged 3.5 months: (6, 2, 4, 2, 5, 4, 2, 3,
4, 1, 4)
Times from onset to death averaged 17.4 months [excluded a confirmed case
exceeding 34 months]
Three cases are clearly marked as confirmed prior to death.
Deaths from nvCJD
The Lancet 353, Number 9157 20 March 1999 [research letter]
R G Will, S N Cousens , C P Farrington, P G Smith, RS G Knight, J W
Ironside
Predicting the nvCJD epidemic in Humans
Nature 385 197-98 1997 [commentary of 16 Jan 1997]
Cousens SN, ...., Will RG, Smith PG
Armed Forces face vaccine scare: soldiers could be infected with 'mad
cow' disease
The Ottawa Citizen Friday 19 March 1999 Mike Blanchfield
Maj. Dan Drew's seven months in the former Yugoslavia were hell on Earth.
He survived the worst battle Canadian
soldiers had fought since the Korean War when his battalion took part in a
firefight that pitted his fellow soldiers
against a Croat army. But now, six years later, Maj. Drew wonders whether
the most serious threat to his life
occurred before he even set foot on Balkan soil.
He worries that his blood and the blood of thousands of other Canadian
soldiers was accidentally contaminated with a
fatal brain malady called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And there is no way
he will ever know for sure because no
detailed military records exist to show which soldiers received the
contaminated batch of vaccine.
"We've been exposed to a potential death sentence," Maj. Drew says.
In January 1993, Maj. Drew was one of thousands of soldiers inoculated
against Hepatitis A with a batch of gamma
globulin immune serum that may have been tainted with CJD, the human form
of the so-called "mad cow" disease, the
Citizen has learned.
The serum is made from blood products. And the military fears a particular
batch given to Canadian troops may have
been contaminated by a Red Cross blood donor who had the rare, but fatal
disease. The lot in question -- 4,260 vials of
it -- was given to Canadian soldiers between January 1992 and June 1994,
according to a Dec. 15, 1997, internal
military report.
If Maj. Drew was exposed, he realizes it might be decades before he knows
for sure. CJD has an incubation period
ranging from 18 months to 30 years. No test is available for CJD, which
causes dementia and degeneration of body
functions.
"There is no way that either the individual or the system could determine
who got that lot number," said Capt. Lynne
Chaloux, a military spokeswoman. As a result of this incident, Capt.
Chaloux said, the Forces tightened the procedures
it uses to record the origin of the vaccines its gives to its personnel.
Now, each soldiers' personal immunization record
contains the lot number of the Hepatitis A vaccine, and the information is
now added to a computer data base.
"If this happens today," explained Capt. Chaloux, "we can say 'here you
go, here's your lot number.' " In an ironic
twist, Capt. Chaloux, the official appointed to comment on this story,
will live under the same cloud. "I could have this
because I got that vaccine in that time frame," said Capt. Chaloux, who
realized this only last night when she was
contacted by the Citizen.
This is the latest in a series of health controversies plaguing the Armed
Forces. Questions remain about the quality of
the anthrax vaccine given in 1998 to peacekeepers in the Persian Gulf. And
last fall, it was disclosed that Maj. Drew's
colleagues in the Balkans were also unwittingly exposed to radiation and
hazardous PCBs.
It has not been proven that CJD can be transmitted to humans through blood
or blood products. But that possibility
deeply worries health officials. The Canadian blood system was thrown into
panic four years ago when it was
discovered a carrier of CJD had donated blood. The Red Cross ordered the
largest recall of blood products in its
history in 1995, after a Vancouver woman told authorities that her father,
who suffered from CJD, had donated blood
21 times beginning in 1989.
Again, in September 1997, the Red Cross issued a blood recall because of a
donor who was found to have CJD. The
agency warned that 50,000 people could be at risk. After that recall, the
Canadian Red Cross contacted the Forces to
tell them some of their soldiers might have been affected.
Monsanto Dairy Hormone May Be Carcinogenic - EU Vet Committee
Thu, Mar 18, 1999 Dow Jones By Daniel Balint-Kurti
LONDON -- Milk from cows treated with a synthetic hormone produced by
U.S.-based firms Monsanto Corp.
(MTC) and Eli-Lily & Co. (LLY) may cause cancer, a key European Union
veterinary committee has said.
Use of the hormone in dairy cows could also foster resistance to
antibiotics and induce allergic reactions in humans,
according to the E.U. Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating
to Public Health. The doubt cast upon
the safety of synthetic bovine somatotropin (BST) by the E.U.-appointed
scientists could mean the E.U. Commission
will not lift the ban on sale of the product later this year.
The ban on synthetic BST was imposed by the E.U. Commission some years ago
due to similar health concerns. The
E.U. scientists made their statement in a summary of a report obtained by
Dow Jones Newswires Thursday. The full
report is due to be published within the next few days. The E.U.
Commission will debate the report and use it as a
basis for its decision on whether to renew the E.U. ban on synthetic BST.
The deadline for renewal of the ban is Dec.
31, 1999.
Synthetic BST, which stimulates milk production in dairy cows, is produced
by inserting genes from cows into
microscopic organisms, which then reproduce the hormone. It is widely used
in U.S. dairy herds.
Injection of the synthetic hormone into cows could mean consumers are
exposed to "an increased relative risk of
breast and prostate cancer" it was stated in the summary report. The E.U.
scientists said also that the increased use of
antibiotics in cows treated with synthetic BST could lead to those
antibiotics finding their way into milk and could
foster the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
As the use of synthetic BST increases the risk of cows developing
mastitis, a disease which causes the deterioration
of cows' udders, cows treated with the hormone are typically given extra
doses of antibiotics.
An E.U. Commission agriculture official declined to comment on what impact
the report could have on E.U. policy but
he did say the summary of the report was 'vague' in its conclusions.
Monsanto Issues Statement Rejecting E.U. Warning On Hormone
Thu, Mar 18, 1999 Dow Jones
NEW YORK --Monsanto Co. (MTC) issued the following statement in response
to an earlier report on Dow Jones
Newswires that a European Union veterinary committee had stated that the
hormone Bovine Somatotropin (BST) may
be tied to cancer and other health problems:
'In January 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reaffirmed that
milk, meat and dairy products from
BST-supplemented cows are safe for humans. The European Union's Committee
on Veterinary Medicinal Products
(February 1993), the World Health Organization's Joint Expert Committee on
Food Additives (February 1998), Health
Canada (January 1999), and regulatory agencies in a number of countries
have all concluded that BST is safe for
people and animals.
'Concerns raised about carcinogenic effects with this product have also
been thoroughly studied and dismissed (over
the past decade) by the same regulatory bodies as well as the American
Cancer Society and the U.S. National
Institutes of Health.
'Additionally, a moratorium on BST use imposed by the E.U. Commission some
years ago (as noted in the Dow Jones
story) was based on economic and political considerations and not on
factors related to animal or human safety.'
Scientists Develop Test for "Undetectable" Sports Drug
Wire Service: OTC (COMTEX Newswire) Date: Fri, Mar 12, 1999 LONDON (March
12) XINHUA - German and
Danish researchers said Friday they have developed a test for growth
hormone doping in sport, which was previously
regarded as undetectable. Misuse of drugs in sport is common, but not
always detected. Some substances are
particularly difficult to detect when injected, especially those that
mimic naturally occurring hormones in the body.
Growth hormone is one such substance that is produced by the pituitary
gland in the brain, but which is also
manufactured for injection. Until now there has been no reliable way to
differentiate between the natural and the
injected hormone by blood or urine samples, leaving athletes who abuse
growth hormone able to escape detection.
However, German and Danish researchers reported in a letter to the Lancet
medical journal that they have developed
the first test that can differentiate between naturally occurring and
manufactured hormones. The test depends on blood
being taken within 36 hours of growth hormone injection, which, as the
scientists pointed out, means that "out of
competition" testing would have to be implemented.
The researchers, led by Dr. Christian Strasburger and colleagues at
Innenstadt University Hospital in Munich,
Germany, said that the blood test also depends on blood being taken, which
is not at present the case for control
samples. But the scientists were confident that such administrative
obstacle can be overcome by the authorities in
politics and sport, in view of the serious side effects of growth hormone
misuse.
"From an analytical point of view, the dogma of 'undetectability'of r-HGH
(manufactured human growth hormone)
misuse no longer holds true," they concluded.
Comment (webmaster): This may cause sports figures to inject
pituitary-derived grwoth hormone again with all its
attendent dangers of CJD transmission. The sole case of nvCJD outside
England occurred in a French body builder.
Kent cluster found statistically significant
2 Jan 99 Lancet 353 18-21
Comment (webmaster): This 4 page article looked at the geographical
distribution of nvCJD. Recall that a rendering
plant had been injecting BSE rendering waste into a groundwater well in a
region in Kent, England pumping this out for
drinking water. There were 26 cases at the time the study was made, 31 Aug
98; it is a bit of a shock to realize the
case count has soared 50% in the succeeding 5 months (even using DoH
numbers).
The authors simply looked at the distance between residences and rendering
plants with census-weighting for
population. The problem here is that a small Mom and Pop rendering
facility is given the same weight as a giant
regional facility. They do not consider the plant's volume of rendering
waste nor its method of disposal (well injection,
incineration, landfills, surface-applied fertilizer, locally consumed
sausage, etc.). Why use the whole human population
when only a narrow age band is affected by nvCJD?
There were a mere 54 rendering plants in operation in the year they chose,
1988. These were not contacted even
though 9 authors signed onto the paper, a morning's work. No effort was
made to locate facilities shut down in the
1980-88 or 1989-98 period, perhaps some of the most primitive. (This
information is readily available from industry
sources, old phone books, census codes, and tax records.)
Only in the case of Kent did they examine watershed maps showing locations
of residences relative to locations of
BSE waste injection (2 of 4 Kent victims affected). For incineration, no
consideration was given to prevailing winds or
dispersion contours (readily available at local airports) which can be
very dramatic.
Much to their chagrin, their study methods (which strongly deweighted the
Kent scenario a priori) found strong
statistical significance being associated with these cases. This motivated
them to attack the very statistical methods
that they themselves had chosen.
The only sensible part of the article comes when they consider
transmission scenarios such as drinking
prion-contaminated well-water, inhaling fly ash, or working inside the
plant. The problem, as noted many times before,
is why are the victims not among the very heaviest exposures, ie, the
fellow who chain-saws the spinal cords, lives a
half mile downwind of the plant , drinks the well water, and subsists on
beef burgers? Surely there is a group here with
the appropriate age parameters meeting these conditions and surely the
exposure is many orders of magnitude higher
than actual victims received. Perhaps exposure and special prion gene
control alleles are needed; the high exposure
group is too small to have the genetic factor.
The authors should run the current data set. It takes only a few minutes
to add new points and have the computer
update everything. If any of the 13 lived in Kent or near rendering plant
B, it would dramatically strengthen the
conclusion that something went wrong here, though no light would be shed
on exactly what. One sees the reason the
DoH page does not disclose regional information -- somebody might put two
plus two together outside their control of
the news.
Arkansas food-disparagement bill
Morning News (a NW Ark. paper) and >Arkansas Democrat Gazette 10 Mar 99
Arkansas Update:
Things are heating up in Arkansas as opposition to the proposed
food-disparagement bill continues to mount. For
example, today's Morning News also editorialized against the proposed
measure (as did the Arkansas Dem. Gazette).
Currently, the proposed law is the 20th item on the Committee's list, so
it may not get to the matter until Monday.
The Chair of the Senate Ag. Comm. is Senator James Scott. His Committee is
scheduled to hear the bill soon. His
phone # is (870) 226-3234, fax: (870) 226-3200 and website
U.S. Groups To Seek Animal Antibiotics Ban
By Lisa Richwine 9 Mar 99
WASHINGTON - Health, consumer and environmental groups will ask the
federal government Tuesday to stop
farmers feeding animals antibiotics that are losing their power to treat
infections in people. The U.S. consumer group
Center for Science in the Public Interest is leading the effort by 37
groups to convince the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration it must sharply curtail agricultural use of antibiotics.
Scientists think feeding the drugs to animals destined for dinner plates
makes humans vulnerable to so-called superbugs
that cannot be treated. Scientists and health-care experts are extremely
concerned about strains of salmonella and
other potentially deadly bacteria that do not respond to antibiotics. They
believe the bacteria outsmart the drugs
because of their repeated use in both humans and animals. Farmers
routinely add antibiotics to livestock feed to help
the animals grow faster. CSPI said any antibiotics needed for humans
should be off limits for that purpose.
FDA officials and Congress have been debating how to stifle development of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In January,
an advisory committee recommended the FDA go ahead with plans to make drug
companies test for antibiotic
resistance before and after they approach the agency for approval.
Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine,
said Monday he did not think FDA had the
authority to institute the broad ban that CSPI advocates. But under FDA's
proposals, individual drugs could be
removed from the market if the amount of resistant bacteria they promote
exceeds agency limits.
``One way or another we're going to be taking action on this,'' Sundlof
said in a telephone interview. Makers of animal
drugs said they support efforts already underway to monitor resistant
bacteria, but say the FDA's proposals to change
the drug approval process, or institute an even broader ban, are
unnecessary.
``There is not good scientific data to indicate we need to pull these
products,'' said John Keeling, a spokesman for the
Animal Health Institute, which represents animal drug makers. The FDA is
taking public comments on its proposals
for animal drugs until April and will decide whether to implement new
rules sometime after that.
French press scathing about blood trial verdict
Wed, Mar 10, 1999 Reuters World Report
PARIS - French newspapers on Wednesday were heavily critical of the
acquittal of former Prime Minister Laurent
Fabius and one of his ex-ministers in a 1980s AIDS-related blood scandal.
A special court on Tuesday did convict one
former cabinet minister of manslaughter but, in a near-unprecedented move,
waived any sentence against him.
"After the class struggle, now the caste struggle," complained the daily
France-Soir, reflecting a popularly held view
that France's politicians were a class above the law.
The Court of Justice of the Republic on Tuesday found Fabius, currently
speaker of the National Assembly, and
former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix, innocent in the case in
which at least 3,600 people were estimated to
have been infected with AIDS-infected blood and other blood products. At
least 1,000 have died.
Former Health Secretary Edmond Herve was convicted but the court handed
down no punishment after deciding he
had suffered enough during the five-year inquiry leading up to the trial.
France-Soir wrote that "in a special jurisdiction,
it is always the most powerful who emerge victorious. There should be the
same court for all."
The conservative newspaper Le Figaro said the verdict had opened another
trial - "that of unacceptable privileges.
"France would be better inspired to copy its neighbours where justice is
the same for all. Neither Britain, nor Italy, nor
Germany have such procedures for their politicians." The centre-left daily
Liberation wrote that the special court "had
condemned itself. Its verdict mirrored its make-up and it will not
survive."
Victims say the accused were aware of the risks of AIDS-infected blood in
1984-85 but failed to take the necessary
steps fast enough to protect the public. "Politicians are like gangsters
-- if you don't catch them red-handed, you can't
make them pay," said Sylvie Rouy, a wheelchair-bound AIDS victim whose
infection through a blood transfusion led to
one of Herve's two convictions.
Francois Honorat, a lawyer for some of the victims of tainted blood
transfusions, said the verdicts were "nonsense"
and the court had manipulated the proceedings to get a favourable result.
France dismisses fears of new wave of mad cow
March 10, 1999 Reuters Irwin Arieff
PARIS -- French farm minister Jean Glavany was cited as dismissing fears
of a new wave of mad cow disease at a
news conference Wednesday, saying the number of fresh cases was small and
should disappear after 2001, adding
that the new cases detected so far this year could be traced back to
events which took place before late 1996 when
tough new controls were slapped on animal feed. It was in the second half
of 1996 that the French authorities, hoping
to check the spread of the disease, banned using animal nervous tissue,
ground bone and certain internal organs in feed
intended for pigs and poultry as well as cattle. Before then, such
materials were barred from cattle feed but not
products destined for pigs and poultry. Glavany said French scientists
believed the current mini-wave of new cases
was due to the accidental contamination before 1996 of cattle feed with
products intended for pigs and poultry. The
story notes that France, with a cattle herd of 21 million, has recorded 56
cases of mad cow disease since the
authorities began tracking the disease in 1990. In each case, the entire
herd of cows is killed off and their bodies
burned. In Britain, by contrast, there have been more than 175,000 cases.
7th case of BSE has been diagnosed in the Netherlands
Thu, 18 Mar 1999 Listserve
The 7th case of BSE has been diagnosed in the Netherlands from a farm in
Markelo. No details yet. All (over 100)
herdmates will be culled and diagnosed for TSE by immunohistochemistry.
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