As stated by the officials, nearly thirteen hospital patients in the US states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire are at a risk of being exposed to a deadly brain disease.
It is said by the authorities, that potentially infected surgical equipment was put to use in various procedures at two hospitals.
The authorities clearly suspect that a brain surgery patient must be having Creutzfeldt-Jakob Dishavin. This has proteins that can withstand standard sterilisation measures.
Till date there is no possible treatment or cure for this rarest of the rare disease.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease can only be diagnosed through biopsy or post-mortem examination, and there is no firm guarantee of its cure anyhow.
Symptoms of the disease:
As we discuss the symptoms of this condition, it can be understood as somewhat similar to mad cow disease, including progressive dementia. If not cured properly it can lead to death within a few months.
As per the reports, the patient at the centre of the inquiry had undergone brain surgery at New Hampshire’s Catholic Medical Center in May and lost his life in August.
Various tests are being performed in order to determine whether the patient had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or not.
Nearly eight patients who had undergone brain operations at the hospital have been hinted of the risk they are at.
Health officials further state, that also five patients those who went through spinal procedures at Massachusetts’ Cape Cod Hospital, that had borrowed an instrument used on the New Hampshire patient, must have been contacted by the disease too.
However they stress over the fact that the possibility of transmission is quite remote.
Anually, around 200 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are reported in the US. Whereas there have been reported just four cases of transmission through surgical instruments, outside the US.
