"Jim Webster" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Torsten Brinch" > wrote in message
> ...
> > On Mon, 5 Jan 2004 03:00:20 -0600, "Jeff" > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >"Rubystars" > wrote in message
> > gy.com...
> >
> > >> There's been speculation that many of the people who were diagnosed
> with
> > >> Alzheimer's in the US may have actually had CJD. I thought I read
> > >>something
> > >> about the brains of people who had died from Alzheimer's being
studied
> and
> > >> the ones doing it finding out they had died of CJD, but I can't
> remember
> > >> where the article is now.
> >
> > >There is no proof what so ever that those inflicted with Alzheimer's
had
> in
> > >fact CJD.
> >
> > We must be careful not to mix up things. There is a disease we can call
> > CJD (classical CJD), and another distinct from it, called vCJD (variant
> > CJD). Undoubtedly there have been people diagnosed with Alzheimer's
> > who really died from CJD, but not likely any from vCJD. vCJD affects
> > relatively young people.
> >
> > >There was one cow found to be diseased. They said millions would
> > >die in England when they had their scare and they had thousands of
> diseased
> > >cattle. <snip>
> >
> > Pointedly one could say some said there was only a relatively few BSE
> > clinical cases at one stage during the UK epizootic , with the case
> > number appearing to be leveling out at a low prevalence. Downplaying
> > it, so maybe it was no big deal, one could wait and see. However, they
> > were sitting on a huge number of subclinical cases, the proverbial
> > hidden part of the ice-berg they just could not see yet, and we are to
> > be happy that some were sufficiently foresighted to act accordingly.
>
> note that when people have their tonsils out, these are now, in many parts
> of the UK if not all of it, tested for nvCJD.. The idea being that these
> tissues are among the first parts to become infective and therefore will
be
> a useful marker as to the number of cases. So far none have come up
>infected

If they can't do anything to cure the person or prevent onset of the
disease, then what's the point?

-Rubystars