Contents:
- Medical Video: What Happened to Mad Cow Disease?
- Is that mad cow disease?
- How can someone contract mad cow disease?
- Symptoms in someone with mad cow disease
- Treatment and prevention of mad cow disease
Medical Video: What Happened to Mad Cow Disease?
Infectious diseases are generally caused by infections of fungal microorganisms, bacteria, or viruses but are different frommad cow disease aka mad cow disease, which causes protein and can damage nerve tissue in a person. Although this disease is rarely found, the development of this disease always leads to death.
Is that mad cow disease?
Alias mad cow mad cow disease is a disease that can infect animals and humans. In animals, especially cattle, this disease is known as a name bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) whereas in humans it is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Both BSE and vCJD are caused by abnormal proteins (prions) which cause damage to the central nervous system, so that both animals and humans can cause loss of control of the muscles in the body, such as difficulty walking or standing.
Mad cow in humans is a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) but both are different diseases. VCJD infection is thought to be closely related to BSE infection in animals to humans, but CJD cases have no evidence of infection. Both vCJD and CJD are diseases caused by prions that are nerve-damaging (neurodegenerative) so that it always ends in death.
CJD cases are thought to spread throughout the world but have very rare cases, besides that CJD-causing prions in humans can be carriers that do not develop or cause symptoms of mad cow disease.However, BSE infection and vCJD risk are found to tend to be higher in European regions, especially in the UK Whereas vCJD cases have also been found in America and Japan.
How can someone contract mad cow disease?
Until now it was not known exactly how prion transmission to infect the central nerve could occur in individuals. According to the CDC mad cow disease agentallegedly originating from the development of abnormal proteins that turn into prions and cause BSE disease in cattle. Furthermore, consumption of sick beef will cause vCJD disease in humans.
VCJD infection is closely related to the consumption of animal products or processed cows infected with prions. Even so, there is very little chance of prions found in meat and cow's milk Prions generally infect the brain and spinal cord of cows, but some prions also have the potential to infect organs that have nerve tissue such as liver, spleen, bone marrow, and cow blood
In humans, physical contact will not cause transmission of vCJD between humans but can still be transmitted through cannibalism and transplantation of human organs infected with prions. In addition, cases of prion infection in human blood have been found in the United Kingdom so that there are regulations that prohibit transfusion or blood donation from individuals from regions that have had BSE and vCJD outbreaks.
Symptoms in someone with mad cow disease
Unlike CJD, mad cow disease or vCJD infection can appear and develop after a person has prion infection from BSE in cattle or other animals. This is what causes vCJD to have a younger age of death, whereas CJD disease tends to develop and cause symptoms in elderly individuals.
Nonetheless, the development of vCJD occurs longer than CJD, which is 12-13 months compared to CJD which is 4-5 months. Mental disorders are more common in vCJD sufferers. Both vCJD and CJD can cause motion paralysis and decrease or loss of coordination with the eyes and mouth.
Symptoms of limb paralysis from mad cow disease vCJD is preceded by the development of mental and cognitive disorders which generally occur around the first four months of development in a person characterized by symptoms such as:
- Psychotic disorders
- Dementia even at a young age
- Decreased ability to think and remember
- Insomnia
- Worry
- Looks depressed or withdrawn
Although symptoms are difficult to distinguish from people with Alzheimer's or Huntington's disease, mad cow disease causes rapid decline in cognitive function. At the end of the course of the disease or about 13 months from the first symptom, there is a sponge-like cavity in the patient's brain which causes serious paralysis and causes death.
Treatment and prevention of mad cow disease
Unfortunately, until now there is no treatment that can cure someone who has experienced it mad cow disease. VCJD is only likely to be detected through an MRI examination to see the development or disability in the patient's brain. Medical efforts that can be performed only aim to relieve symptoms that occur during the period of illness but do not inhibit or stop the progression of the disease. In addition, prevention can be done in the form of ensuring that processed animal products consumed are free from the risk of transmitting prions from BSE to animals.
