If the regulatory system is so flawed, why hasn anyone in the U.S. been infected with vCJD?
There is simply no way of knowing whether vCJD has begun in the United States or not. Death certificates from 1979 to 1998 show that 4,751 people were identified with CJD in the United States. While the presumption is that they had the classical form of the disease, rather than the new variant form that is believed to come from animal tissues, this remains uncertain. While most victims were older (a sign of classical CJD), a small number were surprisingly young. The reported cases are probably underestimates due to the problems of misdiagnosis and underreporting. Transmissible encephalopathies are not yet reportable diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Individuals showing signs of dementia due to such a condition may be misdiagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or stroke, and most dying with neurological illnesses are never autopsied, so their brains are never examined.
Related Questions
- I tried to send an e-mail to someone with an attachment that I *know* is not infected with a virus, yet the mail system quarantined it! What gives?
- If the regulatory system is so flawed, why hasn anyone in the U.S. been infected with vCJD?
- Is the current [airport] hub-and-spoke system [for air-carrier operations] flawed?
