Twenty-year CJD ReportMAD COW DISEASEIN HUMANS IN THE U.S.1979-1998The
following information comes from no less a prestigious source than the Journal
of the American Medical Association (Vol. 284, No. 18, November 8,
2000). We will first comment on the article, paragraph by paragraph,
and then quote it. Comment
on 1:
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the human form of mad cow disease in
animals. A new form of CJD has emerged, which is called new variant CJD
(nvCJD). But both produce deterioration of
brain tissue and eventual death. Both are fatal; there is no cure
for either. As our new book, International Meat Crisis, explains, the
cause is always due to eating meat, eating raw glandulars, having infected
animal blood enter the skin through a cut, or by infected surgical
instruments. You
will generally read in the public press that there is no CJD (mad cow
disease in humans) in America. But the JAMA article, reprinted
below, clearly shows that Americans have been dying from it for quite some
time. This report
only covers the years from 1979 onward. Our new book explains that CJD-infected
meat in America and Britain has been eaten since the early 1970s, when new
animal feeding methods were introduced, slaughterhouse processing
techniques were accelerated, and government controls were relaxed. Comment
on 3: There
were 4,751 known deaths from CJD in the 19 years from 1979 through 1998.
That averages to 238 persons per year. Is that a complete number? We do
not know. After
completing the book this spring, I received a phone call from a nurse in a
southeastern state. She told me that two people had recently died at her
hospital of CJD and that the CDC immediately phoned and ordered them to
burn the equipment and ship the bodies to a research university for
further analysis. We
know that Alzheimer's disease has almost the same symptoms as CJD, yet
autopsies are rarely done to check on the possibility that the victim may
have died of CJD instead of Alzheimer's. In fact, there is only one
recorded instance in America in which this was done: the U.S. Veterans
Hospital in Pittsburgh. They did analytic autopsies of 53 sequential
Alzheimer's
victims. Sampling #1 revealed that 5.5% of the Alzheimers
patients had actually died of CJD, and sampling #2 showed 6.3%.
Extrapolating from that research finding, it can be estimated that about
6% of all Alzheimer deaths in the United States are actually caused by the
human form of mad cow disease! That would be a lot more than 238 deaths
per year! But how many? The
cover article on the May 14, 2001, issue of Time magazine was
devoted to Alzheimer's disease. Statistics on the total number of
Alzheimer's deaths were given twice in the article. Here is the first
one: Precious little is known about this terrible illness, which threatens to strike some 14 million Americans by 2050. If
6% of Alzheimer's deaths are actually CJD mad cow, then 6% of 14
million would be 840,000 Americans who will die of mad cow within the next
49 years! The
article also mentions that this mysterious disease, Alzheimer's, is
increasing rapidly to epidemic proportions among older people. At the
present time, over 65, one person in ten, Americans die of what is thought
to be Alzheimer's. By age 85, it becomes 50%! Six percent of those
deaths will really be from mad cow disease. Here is the second
statistic from Time: On the average, 10% of the people over 65 come down with Alzheimers, a number that rises to 50% by age 85. And
that brings us to our comment on 4. Comment
on 4: In this
paragraph, we are told that the average age of death by CJD is 68. Very
few CJD victims died young (only 10 out of 4,451). Not only are the
symptoms of Alzheimers and CJD almost alike, but death tends to come to
both in old age.
Alzheimer's
is thought to be a genetic disease, yet death by it is doubling and
trebling. But death rates caused by genetically caused diseases tend to
remain constant. Why is it that death by Alzheimer's is
increasing so rapidly while almost no deaths by CJD are occurring?
Notice in 4 that some patients die of CJD caused by taking human
growth hormones. Comment
on 5: We are
told that more than 85% of patients die within 1 year. That means
within a year after the symptoms clearly manifest themselves. We are also
told that it is not until the victim has died that we can be certain
that death came from CJD. Obviously, autopsies are urgently needed in
order to identify CJD as the cause of death, yet they are rarely done.
Without autopsies, CJD deaths cannot be correctly reported to the CDC. But
physicians fear to conduct such autopsies, since their instruments cannot
be cleansed of the infecting prions. So we have here a CJD reporting
crisis. Far more people are dying of CJD than are being reported. Either
CJD is not going to be correctly reported or the medical instruments in
U.S. hospitals are going to all become contaminated with CJD-causing
prions. The CDC is
choosing the former. Farther
down in the same paragraph, it is estimated that fully 80% of the CJD
deaths in America are being identified. But, as we have learned above,
that cannot be a correct statement. The
paragraph also states that no marked increase in the CJD death rate
is occurring. That is understandable. People are eating lots of meat, just
as they did years ago, and the meat is processed in the same contaminated
manner that it was back then. Little wonder that there seems to be little
change in the reported statistics. Comment
on 6: While
there have been 4,751 reported deaths from CJD in America since 1979,
there have only been 84 cases of nvCJD in Britain. Astounding! We thought
that British beef, which Britishers love to eat, was so heavily
contaminated with mad cow diseasethat nations all over the world were
refusing to buy it. Yet Brits have 84 cases and we have 4,751. Yet, in the
public press, beef in America is said to rarely have mad cow disease. Yet
we have had 4,751 cases of CJD among Americans! Also
note in this paragraph that, while reported CJD in America tends to
cause death in old age, reported nvCJD in Britain results in death
at a much earlier age. Could that be partly due to a different method of
gathering data on CJD deaths? Comment
on 7: The CDC
has established an entire new research center to consider statistics on
CJD in America. They are getting worried. But they do not want you to
worry. The meat industry must not be disturbed, for it makes more money
than any other branch of U.S. agriculture. Comment
on 8: As
mentioned earlier, CJD and nvCJD are variants of the human form of mad cow
disease. This paragraph states that only the first of these is killing
people in America. Here
now is the article from the Journal of the American Medical
Association:
Sections containing complicated statistics have been omitted. The
omissions are marked with a dash (). Paragraphs are numbered. [1]
To the Editor: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the most common
transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in humans. In response to concerns
about the emergence of new variant CJD (nvCJD) in the United Kingdom, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) enhanced its ongoing CJD
surveillance 1,2.
We describe results of mortality surveillance for CJD in the United States
from 1979 through 1998. Methods:
. [2]
We analyzed multiple cause-of-death data 3
for CJD (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, code
046.1). We excluded 8 deaths because of coding errors, clear
alternative diagnoses, or pathological findings indicating the absence of
CJD. We included an additional 5 deaths reported to the CDC by other
surveillance methods. Age-specific and age-adjusted annual CJD death rates
were calculated. Age-adjusted rates were standardized by the direct
method, using the 1990 census population. Results:
. [3]
From 1979 through 1998, 4,751 deaths due to CJD were reported in the
United States. The average annual age-adjusted death rate was 0.97 deaths
per million persons, ranging from 9.78 in 1980 to 1.13 in 1997. The
overall annual rates have been relatively stable since 1985 (P =
.64, linear regression analysis). [4]
The median age at death was 68 years. Ten CJD decedents were younger than
30 years, including 3 who died during the period of the nvCJD epidemic in
the United Kingdom (1995-1998). Neuropathologic evaluations of 2 of these
3 patients ruled out nvCJD; the third patient had iatrogenic CJD
associated with receipt of human growth hormones. Comment:
. [5]
Because CJD is invariably fatal, more than 85% of patients die within 1
year and the diagnosis is best ascertained at the time of death, mortality
data analysis is an efficient way of monitoring CJD incidence in the
United States. Two studies have indicated that mortality data analyses
identify at least 80% of CJD deaths in the United States 1,2.
The relatively high sensitivity of CJD mortality surveillance is supported
by the fact that no marked increase in the CJD death rate was seen in
recent data despite the extensive attention nvCJD, CJD, and bovine
spongiform encephalopathy have received since 1996. [6]
As of October 2, 2000, a total of 84 nvCJD cases had been reported in the
United Kingdom 1.
The median age at death of patients with nvCJD was 27.5 years (unpublished
data, National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh,
Scotland, October 16, 2000). [7]
In the United States, the CDC enhanced CJD mortality surveillance by
focusing on the striking difference in age distribution of nvCJD cases
from that of U.S. sporadic CJD cases. This enhancement included follow-up
investigation of patients with CJD who were younger than 55 years and the
establishment of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center
(NPDPSC) in collaboration with the American Association of
Neuropathologists (AANP). [8]
The clinical and neuropathologic record reviews of 101 patients with CJD
who died before age 55 from 1994 through 1997 have been completed; 45 of
the 101 patients had neuropathologic confirmation of the CJD diagnosis (CDC,
authors unpublished data). The NPDPSC
alerted U.S. members of AANP and the U.S. and Canadian Academy of
Pathologists about nvCJD pathology and periodically requested reports of
CJD and suspected nvCJD cases. None of the CJD surveillance efforts,
including analysis through September 20, 2000, of brain tissues of
suspected and confirmed CJD cases at the NPDPSC, detected any evidence of
nvCJD in the United States (Pierluigi Gambetti, MD, Case Western
Reserve University, written communication, September 27, 2000). Robert
V. Gibbons, MD, MPH Robert
C. Holman, MS Ermias
D. Belay, MD Lawrence
B. Schonberger, MD, MPH Division
of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases National
Center for Infectious Diseases Center
for infectious Diseases Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention 1
Holman, RC, Khan AS, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
in the United States, 1979-1994. Emergency Infectious Diseases,
1996;2:333-337. 2
Tan L, Williams MA, Khan MK, et al. Risk of Transmission of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy to humans in the United States. JAMA.
1999; 281:2330-2339. Abstract full text. 3
U.S. Department of health and Human Services. Vital Statistics Mortality
Data, Multiple Cause Detail 1979-1998, Public Use Data Tape Contents and
Documentation Package. Hyattsville, Md: National Center for Health
Statistics; 2000. 4
Department of Health, United Kingdom. Monthly Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
statistics. Accessed October 16, 2000. 5
Will RG, Zeidler M, Stewart GH, et al. Diagnosis of new variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Annals Neurology. 2000;47:575-582. 6
National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center. Accessed June
22, 2000. Nearly
400 Products Made from Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs It
comes as something of a shock to discover all the products that contain
animal parts or derivatives. Many of these are in food, medicines, or
medical equipment. We
live in a chemical age, and the raw materials the chemists have to draw
from are rocks, plants, and animals. There is nothing else. 1
- MEDICAL CARE PRODUCTS GENERAL
MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE PRODUCTS antibodies
(immunoglobulins) / beef insulin / bovine collagen - used as injections to
fill in scars / bovine fibrinolysin (brand name-Elase) ointment for
necrotic tissue - bovine super oxide - dismutase cream (Orgotein) -
cosmetic skin cream to prevent tissue aging / bovine thrombin (brand name
- Thrombinar) clotting agent for blood / culture medium - diagnosis /
fetal bovine serum - tissue cultures / Hyaluronidase - efficient drug use
/ PTH - control tetany / pegademase - bovine derivative (brand name -
Adagen) - for patients who are immuno-compromised - helps prevent white
blood cells from breaking down / pill capsules - GELATIN / whole serum -
vaccine manufacturing
PRODUCTS
FROM OVARIES estrogen
/ progesterone - a reproductive hormone
PRODUCT
FROM STOMACHS pepsin
- aid in protein digestion / rennet - aid in milk digestion
PRODUCTS
FROM THYROIDS bovine
thyroid (Thyrar) a thyroid replacement / TSH - thyroid diagnosis / thyroid
extract - hypothrodism / thyroid hormones - myxedema and cretinism PRODUCTS
FROM ADRENALS cortisone
- for arthritis, skin allergies, anti-inflammatory medicine / epinephrine
- aid in raising blood pressure, heart disorders, and allergies
PRODUCTS
FROM LIVERS heparin
- anti-coagulant, prevents gangrene / liver extract - treatment of anemia
/ intrinsic factor - pernicious anemia / Vitamin B12 - prevention of
B-complex deficiencies
PRODUCTS
FROM LUNGS heparin
- anti-coagulant, prevents gangrene
PRODUCTS
FROM BLOOD plasma
protein / blood albumin - RH factor typing / Fraction I - hemophilia /
Fraction V - kills viruses / iron for anemia / thrombin - blood coagulant
/ protein extracts / diagnostic microbiology
PRODUCTS
FROM HOG HEARTS heart
valves for human transplant
PRODUCTS
FROM INTESTINES medical
sutures - surgery PRODUCTS
FROM BONES bone
marrow - blood disorders / bonemeal - calcium and phosphorous source /
mineral source in supplements / collagen and bone for plastic surgery /
soft cartilage - plastic surgery / xiphisternal cartilage (breastbone)
plastic surgery
PRODUCTS
FROM PANCREAS chymotrypsin
- contact surgery / diastase - aid in starch digestion / glucagon - treat
hypoglycemia / insulin - diabetes mellitus / pancreatin - aid digestion /
trypsin - for burns, wounds, and infection - promotes healing - aid in
protein digestion and in cleaning wounds
PRODUCTS
FROM PITUITARY GLANDS ACTH
- arthritis, allergies, rheumatic fever, skin and eye inflammations /
pressor hormone - regulates blood pressure / prolactin - promotes
lactation / vasopressin - controls intestinal and renal functions
PRODUCTS
FROM SPINAL CORDS cholesterol
- hormone products
2
- FOOD PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
FROM CATTLE, SHEEP, AND HOG FLESH
a
huge variety of fresh, frozen, pre-cooked meats, and prepared and
processed meat products
PRODUCTS
FROM MILK/DAIRY
butter
/ casein (proteins) / cheese and cheese products / cream / food ethanol /
ice cream and ice cream mixes / lactose (carbohydrates) / milk powder /
sherbet / whey (proteins) / fats (lipids) / yogurt
PRODUCTS
FROM FATS AND FATTY ACIDS (edible)chewing
gum / lard / oleo margarine / oleo shortening / oleostearin /
pharmaceuticals / rennet for cheese (sheep)
/ shortening
PRODUCTS
FROM BLOOD
blood
sausage / bonemeal / cake mixes / deep-fry batters / egg substitute /
gravy mixes / imitation seafood / pasta / whipped toppings and coffee
whiteners
PRODUCTS
FROM BONES
whitener
in refined sugar
PRODUCTS
FROM BONE, HORNS, AND HOOVES
gelatin
capsules / gelatin deserts / ice cream, malts, and shakes / marshmallow /
potted meats
PRODUCTS
FROM INTESTINES
sausage
casings
PRODUCTS
FROM HIDES AND SKINS
sausage
casings / gelatin / candies and confectionery / flavorings / foods /
gelatin desserts / ice cream / marshmallows / mayonnaise / yogurt
3
- INDUSTRIAL AND CONSUMER PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
FROM MILK
adhesives
/ animal feed / buttons / carriers for human medicine / cosmetics / glue /
pharmaceuticals / sizing / specialty plastics / veterinary medicines
PRODUCTS
FROM BLOOD
adhesives
/ bone marrow / bonemeal / fabric printing and dyeing / leather-treating
agents / livestock feed / minerals / plaster retardant / plywood adhesive
/ diagnostic microbiology from colloidal proteins - glue for automobile
bodies / protein source in feeds / sticking agent / textile sizing
PRODUCTS
FROM BONES
bone
charcoal / pencils / high grade steel / bone handles / bone jewelry /
mineral source in feed / fertilizer / dried bones / buttons / bone china /
glass / porcelain enamel / water filters / whitener in refined sugar
PRODUCTS
FROM BONE, HORNS, AND HOOVES
adhesives
/ bandage strips / collagen cold cream / cellophane wrap and tape /
crochet needles / dice / dog biscuits / emery boards and cloth /
fertilizer / glycerine / laminated wood products / neats-foot oil /
photographic film / plywood and paneling / shampoo and conditioner /
wallpaper and wallpaper paste / syringes
PRODUCTS
FROM BRAINS anti-aging
cream / cholesterol
PRODUCTS
FROM FATS AND FATTY ACIDS (edible
and inedible)animal foods / biodegradable
detergents / biodiesel / cellophane / cement / ceramics / chalk /
chemicals / cosmetics / crayons / creams and lotions (sheep) / deodorants
/ detergents / explosives / fertilizer / fiber softeners / floor wax /
glycerin / glycerol / antifreeze / herbicides / horse and livestock feeds
/ industrial oils and lubricants / insecticides / insulation / linoleum /
livestock feed / makeup / matches / medicines / mink oil / nitroglycerin /
oil polishes / ointment bases / oleostearin / paints / paraffin / perfumes
/ pet foods / pharmaceuticals / plasticizers / plastics / printing rollers
/ protein hair conditioner / protein hair shampoo / putty / rubber
products / shaving cream / shoe cream / soaps / solvents / stearic acid
(sheep) / tallow for tanning / textiles / tires / waterproofing agents /
weed killers
PRODUCTS
FROM GALLSTONES
ornaments
PRODUCTS
FROM HAIR
air
filters / artists paintbrush / felt and rug padding / insulation
material / nonwovens / plastering material / textiles / upholstering
material
PRODUCTS
FROM HIDES AND SKINS
belts
/ collagen-based adhesives (from trimmings) / bandages / emery boards /
glues for papermaking and bookbinding / cabinetmaking / sheetrock /
wallpaper / drumhead (sheep) / pharmaceuticals / photographic materials /
leather sporting goods / leather wearing apparel / luggage / pigskin
garments and gloves / porcine burn dressings for burn victims / shoes and
boots / upholstery / wallets
PRODUCTS
FROM HOOVES AND HORNS
chessmen
/ combs / buttons / fertilizer / horn handles / imitation ivory / inedible
bonemeal / livestock feeds / ornaments / piano keys / plant food
PRODUCTS
FROM INTESTINES
instrument
strings / sausage casings / tennis racquet strings
PRODUCTS
FROM MANURE
fertilizer
- used in gardens, lawns, and farm cropland / nitrogen / potash /
phosphorus / minor minerals
OTHER
PRODUCTS FROM CATTLE SOURCES
airplane
lubricants and runway foam / car polishes and waxes /
hydraulic brake fluid / Stearic acid - helps rubber in tires hold
shape under steady surface / friction steel ball bearings containing bone
charcoal / textiles for car upholstery / various machine oils and viscous
fluids
PRODUCTS
FROM WOOL
asphalt
binder / carpet / clothing / cosmetics / fabrics / felt / insulation /
lanolin / medical ointments / paint and plaster binder / pelt products /
rouge base / rug pads / upholstery / woolen goods / worsted fabric / yarns |