Mad Cow testing equipment stolen from Florida Hospital. (Was used to test patient who tested +)

[Baitball Blogger]

This is particularly interesting to me because a friend died of CJD on Sunday, April 22th. I suspect she's the one they're talking about in the article. If not, there were two cases of it in the area.


Thieves nab discarded equipment used to test patient with mad-cow-like disease

Medical equipment used to detect a brain disease similar to mad cow has been stolen from Florida Hospital's main campus, and the equipment may pose a public health risk.

Hospital surveillance cameras captured footage of a white pickup with dark panels on the truck bed taking a medical scanner and lab machines from the hospital's Center for Diagnostic Pathology on Orange Avenue, according to the Orlando Police Department. The agency is investigating the May 3 theft.

The hospital was discarding the equipment valued at $500,000 because it had been used to perform a brain biopsy on a deceased patient who ultimately tested positive for prion disease, a form of which is mad cow disease in humans.

snip

The biopsy at Florida Hospital took place in mid April, O'Lenick said. Lab results indicating probable CJD came back within six days. "We immediately took the equipment off line and weren't using it."

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-16/news/os-mad-cow-equipment-20120516_1_mad-cow-disease-classic-cjd-dairy-cow

[livetohike]

1. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend

My husband lost his Aunt to CJD in 1993. We try to stay up on the news with this disease, so thank you for posting this article.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Thanks. It still seems surreal. Took her in a matter of 3 weeks.

She was only 52.

Does anybody know anything about the longevity of the bacteria or virus that causes CJD? Could it feasibly survive in the stolen equipment?

On Edit: Hey, I'm only asking because a $500,000 medical equipment will probably be resold to another facility in another state.

[Duer 157099]

3. CJD isn't caused by a virus or bacteria

but rather by a protein. And yes, it will survive, which is why the hospital was discarding it. I know that formic acid destroys prions. Nor sure about autoclaves.

Although, seems to me there would be some way to clean it up if they really wanted to. Now instead they just have it out in the wild ready to infect someone.

So sorry about your friend. I've heard about so many cases of CJD that it doesn't sound as rare as it once was.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I'm wondering how many of those CJD cases are actually mad cow related,

and nobody is telling us?

[Duer 157099]

5. Wouldn't surprise me one bit

CJD is supposed to be super rare.

[magical thyme]

11. I did my presentation final on prion diseases in microbiology a couple years ago

At that point, nothing had been found that destroyed prions. It was pretty scary.

Autoclaves don't. Fire doesn't -- and how many countries were burning carcasses of cows, sheep (with scrapie, which is probably how it originated), and deer with elk wasting disease (and elk and deer form that also occasionally jumps species, it originated in a captive herd in Wisconsin and has been spreading since)?

None of a series of extremely corrosive chemical compounds did.

Not only did burying the carcasses not destroy prions, certain soil types seem to increase their bioavailability. In one test, a herd of sheep were grazed on a pasture where sheep with scrapies had been buried. 100% of the herd developed scrapies, and they developed the fastest progressing form.

Prion diseases can either follow a slow or fast progression.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. This is frightening!

So now we have to worry that:

(1) The men who stole the equipment don't know what they have and will sell the equipment to an unscrupulous or ignorant lab.

(2) That the men might be a malicious group hoping to cultivate the prion for nefarious purposes. (Right now CJD is considered a normal occurrence in the USA. What if they learned how to transmit CJD. It becomes the perfect biological weapon.)

(3) If fire can't destroy prions, then loved one don't get the cremated remains of their loved ones!

[magical thyme]

15. the equipment will have serial numbers on it

And no legit lab is likely to buy equipment off the back of a truck. Half million dollar equipment sounds like an automated analyzer. Use and repair requires ongoing interaction with the manufacturer, which requires warranty, online interaction with peer review/comparison of qc results across labs to establish and maintain appropriate standard values (mean and sd) and diagnose variations when they occur, etc.

Plus labs are required to keep meticulous records of such instruments, including all maintenance, calibrations and qc. And labs, including their equipment, are periodically inspected by independent agencies and government agencies.

It seems more likely to me that someone wants to strip it for base materials and parts, or use it for some.
nefarious reason. But I doubt it's to create a terror weapon.

They already know how to transmit prion disease as a result of mad cow. Ingest mad cow prions and if you have the appropriate proteins, the circulating prions will eventually reach the site where they "assist" in the folding of newly synthesized strings of amino acids into more prions instead of the correct protein.

I looked for my presentation last night and couldn't find it. I may have discarded it in a cleaning frenzy as I was buried in notes and paperwork by the time I finished my degree. But as I recall, mad cow at least affects a specific protein that is found on neuron cell membranes. There was some correlation found that suggested that a single amino acid at a specific point in one of its chains is, in some people, a different amino acid than in others. So you were more or less likely to develop vCJD depending on which amino acid you had at that locus. So predisposition may have some genetic component. There were also certain geographies where people seemed more predisposed, although that could be either environmental through greater exposure or more genetic. This was 3-4 years ago, so I'm sure much more work has been done since.

The way proteins are synthesized is that your dna incorporates chemical "instructions" to connect amino acids in specific sequences until they are long chains. 1 or more amino acid chains then interact with already existing "helper" proteins that fold them into the shape appropriate for their intended use. This shape is held together by a variety of bonds that are, at bottom line, weak electrical charges.

Normally, proteins are denatured (broken down) by disrupting those bonds, either chemically (through digestion), or by applying sufficient heat (cooking). Prions are proteins that somehow get folded into the wrong shape, and it's a shape that happens to be phenomenally stable. Prions that end up at the site of protein synthesis fold new amino acid chains into more prions. Prions that migrate out of synthesis sites incorporate into neuron membranes in the brain. I vaguely remember some explanations as to why they are so stable, including computer modeled images of prions, but not enough to articulate.

[livetohike]

6. Oh my....that was fast

My husband's Aunt was 65 years old and it was four months from the time she started having symptoms until she passed away. It was so heart breaking to see her suffer....

I know that the hospital could not reuse the surgical tools because the prions could not be killed. There was a "scandal" at that same hospital a few years regarding some instruments that had been reused. The hospital had to contact all the affected patients. I don't think I ever learned what the result was.

My husband used to be a regular blood donor, but since this happened to his Aunt, they will not accept his blood.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. How do you move half a mil of equipment without someone in the hospital realizing it?

Something does not add up.

Are you saying that CJD is transmittable? Or that they're concerned your husband may have a genetic predisposition for it?

[livetohike]

9. I don't think it is transmittable. They must have been concerned about the genetic predisposition

This was his Aunt on his maternal side and she was the youngest. Curiously, the remaining Aunts, including my mother-in-law have dementia/Alzheimers. They are now 91, 89, 87 and 85 years old. Another Aunt passed away a few years ago and she was 92. She also had Alzheimers.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. That is terribly unfortunate about the aunts & mother-in-law.

I'm sorry to hear that.

But, if this isn't transmittable, why are they so concerned about reusing the machine?

[livetohike]

12. I was thinking "transmittable" as in like a communicable disease. If anything comes in touch with

with the brain matter (like equipment or surgical tools), then that would be transmittable. However, you can't get CJD by being in contact with a person who has it....not like the common cold, for instance. As far as we know .

[ladybird1121]

16. I am Shocked!!!

I am very shocked to come across all of this a few months late!! I am aware of the hospital equipment being stolen,only because...sadly to say this time here the hospital has used the equipment.....surgical tools included in this case here also!!! I am a mother that was notified from surgeon,hospital staff and risk management to inform our family that our son that had underwent a brain procedure proceeding the victim that had tested positive for CJD,which has now passed. I am very sorry for the families loss. I am also angry at the hospital ,Being informed of the risk....now the lllooonnnnggg wait we have to go through atleast 12-18 months before we will know if our son has been infected!!!!!!

[livetohike]

17. I'm so sorry......I will keep positive thoughts that everything turns out clear

it is a horrible disease. We have no idea how my husband's Aunt contracted it. 12-18 months is a long, long time to wait.

Welcome to DU too

[ret5hd]

8. prions are misfolded proteins...neither virus nor bacteria.

in essence, they aren't alive at all, so they don't "die".

[ScubaFun]

13. Dad died on April 22 also

How odd, dad died of CJD on April 22 also and our family was thinking the story was about the theft of equipment used on his testing. Onset to death was about 6 weeks for us.