Mad Cow Disease Symptoms
Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly referred to as mad cow disease, is a cattle disease that fiercely attacks the central nervous system. This means that the disease will move through the spinal cord all the way to the brain, killing all brain cells literally and leaving holes behind. The primary effect of the disease is an insane behavior in the infected cow. This disease is transmittable to humans who consume contaminated meat from the sick cows, making the disease all the more threatening as it imperils the food supply and consumers lives.
Mad cow disease symptoms however need to be elucidated as there are some manifestations of this disease that aren't related to humans consuming the infected meat, a condition referred to as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Note however that when there is a vague link between mad cow and consumers of the infected beef, the condition will be referred to as a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob or simply vCJD.
The early symptoms of mad cow disease, particularly with vCJD, are normally psychiatric in nature which include such things as mood swings i.e. depression and anxiety, CJD sufferers are also highly likely to develop dementia in the early stages, although it can also be a later manifestation of mad cow disease. An individual suffering from mad cow disease can stay in this early anxious or depressed state or a vacillation of the two states for even a year before they experience memory loss, impaired cognitive function, and concentration failure.
Insomnia is another common symptom of the mad cow disease, regardless of the variant, which as it is known may fuel anxiety and depression. Vision becomes blurry as time goes on, and muscle coordination will equally deteriorate. Sadly, mad cow disease becomes extremely severe as it progresses. Mental instability will worsen and may force patients to get complete care. As the disease progresses, other parts of the body will start failing too, worst of all the heart.
Because it affects the brain, the damage will be so severe to a point that the brain will not have the ability to sustain the body, subjecting one to high chances of coma. Needless to mention, when on a comatose, the respiratory system will fail and more often than not, death ensues mostly from bronchial and lung infections like the dreaded pneumonia. These quite devastating mad cow disease symptoms will march steadily for an average period of up to 7 years.
Showing posts with label Mad Cow Disease Prion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Cow Disease Prion. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Mad Cow Disease Humans
Mad Cow Disease Humans
Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a cattle disease that affects the central nervous system. This explains the reason why affected cows will always exhibit insane or erratic behavior. When humans eat contaminated beef of affected animals, the mad cow disease in humans in known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). People have reason enough to be concerned about contracting this disease because like all other types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, this variant of mad cow disease in humans is a brain disorder that progressively becomes deadly over time.
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is known as 'variant' because even though it is most prevalent among people of ages 50-75, it has affected younger people, as young as 18 years of age. It is believed that the causes of mad cow disease humans is not a bacteria or virus like in other diseases, rather, it is a protein agent known as prion. Prion has the ability to change normal forms of protein into infectious life threatening ones. This agent occurs in the nervous system tissues, hence meat that doesn't come from these tissues i.e. the spinal and brain tissue, is thought to be safe, although conclusive evidence is yet to be given.
Just like BSE, made cow disease in humans affects the brain hence the reason why it produces neurological symptoms, which may begin ingeniously with insomnia, confusion, depression, behavioral and personality changes, poor muscle coordination, memory loss, and poor eye sight. As mad cow disease humans progresses, the patient rapidly develops dementia and irregular and involuntary jerking motions known as myoclonus.
As the disease progresses to the final stages, the person tends to lose all physical and mental functions, slips into a coma and ultimately dies. The average course of the disease is normally a year. As of now, there is no cure for mad cow disease humans, nor is there a definitive medical test to diagnose the condition.
Note that mad cow disease in humans is transmitted to other humans through transplantation of the tissues infected or through cannibalism. Accordingly, blood donations and some human blood products are never accepted from individuals living in areas where cases of BSE have previously been diagnosed. Because the disease is quite rare, some doctors may not even think of diagnosing it, and might mistake the symptoms for other brain disorder such as Huntington or Alzheimer's.
Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a cattle disease that affects the central nervous system. This explains the reason why affected cows will always exhibit insane or erratic behavior. When humans eat contaminated beef of affected animals, the mad cow disease in humans in known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). People have reason enough to be concerned about contracting this disease because like all other types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, this variant of mad cow disease in humans is a brain disorder that progressively becomes deadly over time.
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is known as 'variant' because even though it is most prevalent among people of ages 50-75, it has affected younger people, as young as 18 years of age. It is believed that the causes of mad cow disease humans is not a bacteria or virus like in other diseases, rather, it is a protein agent known as prion. Prion has the ability to change normal forms of protein into infectious life threatening ones. This agent occurs in the nervous system tissues, hence meat that doesn't come from these tissues i.e. the spinal and brain tissue, is thought to be safe, although conclusive evidence is yet to be given.
Just like BSE, made cow disease in humans affects the brain hence the reason why it produces neurological symptoms, which may begin ingeniously with insomnia, confusion, depression, behavioral and personality changes, poor muscle coordination, memory loss, and poor eye sight. As mad cow disease humans progresses, the patient rapidly develops dementia and irregular and involuntary jerking motions known as myoclonus.
As the disease progresses to the final stages, the person tends to lose all physical and mental functions, slips into a coma and ultimately dies. The average course of the disease is normally a year. As of now, there is no cure for mad cow disease humans, nor is there a definitive medical test to diagnose the condition.
Note that mad cow disease in humans is transmitted to other humans through transplantation of the tissues infected or through cannibalism. Accordingly, blood donations and some human blood products are never accepted from individuals living in areas where cases of BSE have previously been diagnosed. Because the disease is quite rare, some doctors may not even think of diagnosing it, and might mistake the symptoms for other brain disorder such as Huntington or Alzheimer's.
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