Prion Disease Fear?
Tangurena: It used to scare me, but only because my father's younger brother died from vCJD. He died from it before the Europeans had their "mad cow" outbreak. And at the time it was so rare in the US that no one really understood it (and he died before there were non-destructive tests for it). It is a disease related to "scrapie" which cattle and sheep can get (he took care of the sheep that his daughters got 4H ribbons for showing in fairs). AIDS just kills you. vCJD destroys what it means to be human before it kills you.We all get terrified of things we can't control, which is why more people are afraid of flying, even though far more people die in traffic accidents every year. When you're driving, you feel in control, versus when you're a passenger in an airplane, you have zero control over anything. That imbalance leads to why there are classes and shrinks to help get over the fear of flying, but there aren't any folks with fear of driving.The vast majority of prion diseases come from our industrial agriculture. So if you're afraid, then you really need to avoid beef. The USDA only permits BSE testing on visibly symptomatic animals, and has banned 100% testing which many countries are only willing to accept. It takes 4-5 years for an infected animal to get the visible symptoms, and most cattle are slaughtered before they hit 2 years old. And the bush administration reduced the number of BSE inspectors by 90%. And you probably should avoid hunting as deer and elk can get a related illness called chronic wasting disease.Finally, there were some genetic studies and it appears that if you have 2 copies of some gene, then you're suceptible to getting vCJD if exposed to the prions (and if you're going to get it, you'll get symptoms in 2-3 years after exposure). If you have 1 copy of the gene, if exposed to the prions, and if you're going to get it, then you'd get symptoms in 15-30 years. The folks doing the research weren't sure, but if you had 0 copies of the gene, then thought you probably couldn't get infected.