- Hello Jeff - This is all so very odd, especially the
fact that the news report names the
- CJD victim and reports the place of burial. I do note
that it appears people who die from CJD can no longer be embalmed or cremated.
I also note in the article that it was initially suggested that she see
a psychiatrist. ("Mind over body, you know.")
-
- Exerpt:
-
- "At one point, they suggested she see a psychiatrist
because, you know, mind over body, and they couldn't find a physical reason."
-
- As per NBC news report, The cluster is now confirmed
at 5 cases...
-
- Also odd is the following:
-
- "We can all be pleased and relieved to learn that
ONLY 11 of 17 cases surrounding the Garden State Race Track in N.J. can
be confirmed as CJD."
-
- Again, remember, the CDC continues to call CJD and EXTREMELY
rare illness.
-
- Exerpt:
-
- "An 11-month investigation into a suspected cluster
of CJD cases centering around the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill,
N.J., wrapped up in May with a determination that there was no link between
17 possible CJD deaths among track employees and patrons.
-
- The study found that only 11 of the 17 suspected cases
could be confirmed as CJD and that the rate of CJD cased among track patrons
was not out of the normal range."
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13146
061&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
-
- Brain Disease Baffled Family, Doctors
-
- By Jesse J. Smith,
- Freeman Staff
- 10-16-4
-
- KINGSTON - The family of a Lake Katrine woman who died
from the rare brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease describes a confounding
series of trips to hospitals as area doctors struggled to diagnose the
illness in the previously healthy mother of two.
-
- Colleen Staccio, 46, who died in Benedictine Hospital's
hospice on Aug. 28, was one of four people to succumb to Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease, or CJD, in Ulster County in the past three months. The unusual
spate of deaths from CJD, which typically strikes only one in every 1 million
people per year worldwide, has touched off an investigation by the state
Health Department to determine whether they are due to a statistical anomaly
or some common cause. No conclusion had been announced as of Thursday.
-
- STACCIO'S father, Don Genther, said on Thursday that
his daughter's problems began five to six months ago with severe bouts
of depression and difficulties with balance. Doctors at Kingston and Benedictine
hospitals were unable to determine what caused the symptoms, he said.
-
- "They ran blood tests, they ran EKGs (electrocardiograms),
all kinds of scans, but they could never find anything wrong," Genther
said. "At one point, they suggested she see a psychiatrist because,
you know, mind over body, and they couldn't find a physical reason. She
took offense at that."
-
- Staccio's condition worsened and, in July, she was hospitalized
several times at Benedictine with symptoms that suggested a stroke or seizures.
In each case, however, doctors could not pin down the source of the symptoms.
Then, in the last week of July, Staccio was hospitalized for the last time.
-
- "She was rapidly losing everything," Genther
said. "She couldn't move her limbs, then she couldn't talk. She lost
her vision over a period of one week at the end of July."
-
- ON AUG. 2, after nine days at Benedictine, Staccio was
transferred to Albany Medical Center, where more comprehensive neurological
services were available. After two weeks of additional tests, during which
Staccio's condition continued to deteriorate, the neurologist in charge
of her diagnoses called the woman's family together for a meeting.
-
- "The first thing he said to us was 'Have you ever
heard of Mad Cow Disease?'" Genther said, referring to a common term
for a variant of CJD that is acquired by eating contaminated beef. The
Mad Cow variant has not been found in Staccio or any of the Ulster County
CJD victims, and there never has been a confirmed case of Mad Cow originating
in the United States.
-
- STACCIO died in Benedictine Hospital's hospice facility
on Aug. 28, a few days after she was brought back from Albany. Genther
said doctors told him that, because she died from CJD, his daughter could
not be cremated or embalmed. She was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Kingston
on Aug. 30.
-
- Staccio's death certificate lists CJD as the cause of
death, but her family still is awaiting autopsy results to confirm the
diagnosis and determine which of several variant forms of CJD killed her.
-
- "This just came out of nowhere," said Staccio's
aunt, Karen Catone of Kingston. "She went into the hospital for a
migraine. I just didn't expect her to not come out."
-
- CJD IS a chronic and invariably fatal disease. The most
common form, known as sporadic CJD, accounts for about 85 percent of all
cases and has no known cause. In a few cases, the disease has been spread
through contaminated instruments used in brain surgery, as well as tissue
implants and the administration of human growth hormone taken from contaminated
organs.
-
- The average incubation period between infection and the
onset of CJD symptoms is about 10 years.
-
- The disease is believed to be caused by a malformation
in certain proteins called prions which infect and destroy parts of the
brain.
-
- ON TUESDAY, Dr. Joel Mandelbaum, who has a medical practice
in Kingston, said he was directly involved in the treatment of three local
CJD patients, all of whom died last month. A fourth case, that of Kingston
resident Richard Tobey, was confirmed through a brain biopsy conducted
at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan last week, a few days before
Tobey died at the Benedictine hospice.
-
- State health officials confirmed on Tuesday that they
were investigating the cluster but said they had found no cause for concern.
-
- Unconfirmed reports of a local CJD cluster began circulating
in August. Since then, state health officials repeatedly have declined
to discuss the number of CJD cases in Ulster County, citing patient confidentiality
laws.
-
- ON THURSDAY, state Health Department spokeswoman Claire
Pospisil reiterated that the matter was under investigation, but she declined
to provide details, including how long the department had been looking
into the cluster.
-
- Relatives of Staccio and Tobey said they have not been
contacted by the Health Department or any other government body regarding
the deaths of their loved ones.
-
- AN 11-MONTH investigation into a suspected cluster of
CJD cases centering around the Garden State Race Track in Cherry Hill,
N.J., wrapped up in May with a determination that there was no link between
17 possible CJD deaths among track employees and patrons.
-
- The study found that only 11 of the 17 suspected cases
could be confirmed as CJD and that the rate of CJD cased among track patrons
was not out of the normal range.
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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