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

Mad Cow Disease
Primarily, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSC), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, infects cattle. It affects their neurological system destroying their brain cells. The Mad Cow Disease can be transmitted to humans and when it infects humans, it is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Disease. The name is derived from the two names of the physicians who detected the symptoms of the illness.

The cattle infected with Mad Cow Disease get into a somewhat excitable temperament when touched. Eventually, they become unsteady when walking. This may lead to their immobilization and death. When its other form, Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease affects people, they suffer memory loss, sudden and incomprehensible outbursts, severe weakness, inability to walk and dementia. They may die within a period of one year from the initial symptoms.

The cause of the disease widely known is linked to a protein cell called Prion, which is a modified form of a normal cell protein. The Prion is neither a virus nor a bacterium. There is no RNA or DNA present in the Prion, which is regarded as the elements needed for living tissues to reproduce themselves. Normally, prions are present in human bodies like other cells and do not harm them unless it deforms and changes abnormally. Medical researches suggest that these abnormally changed prions may cause the Mad Cow Disease.

A professor of neurology, Stanley Prusiner of the University of California first discovered the prion protein in 1997. He was later awarded the Noble Prize for discovering this fatal cell. Nevertheless, it has been proved that Mad Cow Disease has been widespread more than 150 years. Though the cause of Mad Cow Disease and its human form is linked with Prion, there is still doubt whether concrete evidences are there to suggest that prion causes Mad Cow Disease, as prion typically occurs when living beings are sick and dying. The doubt in this regard further emphasizes the reason that prions normally occur in the body as a result of unhealthy lifestyles.

Many new methods that are used to increase meat productions such as hormones, pesticides etc., is recognized as harmful agents that may create diseases in living beings. When people consume diseased animals, they get various illnesses, of which causes are not that easy to isolate.

The prions, when analyzed, are neither viruses nor bacteria though they are the causes of fatal diseases. Many researches suggest that wrong life styles and the usage of unnatural materials used for increasing production may create many destructive elements that force natural cells to convert as abnormal elements to fight with strange elements entering the body. Mad Cow Disease could be one such disease in its human form, really, nothing more than a punishment that always comes when human beings try to fulfill a fathomless craving by breaking the natural laws.