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A 2005 study by Urs Rosenberg, PhD,1 addressed the
effectiveness of cleaning processes in instrument washers, and at the
same time, also explored the issue of prion contamination and
decontamination.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as
Mad Cow disease or Scrapie in animals and variant Creutzfeldt Jakob
disease (vCJD) in humans, is caused by prion proteins which are a
so-called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
Originating from English stock animals, the BSE crises spread into
Western Europe, and today there have been verified cases in the United
States and in Canada.
Contaminated bovine tissue BSE have transferred to humans, creating a
new human TSE called variant CJD or simply vCJD. The accumulation
pattern of infectious prion protein (PrPSc) in vCJD is different from
the one in CJD; these vCJD prion proteins are found in the brain, lymph
system, muscle, and blood, as well as other parts of the body. |