New Orleans Patients Exposed to Rare Brain Disease / Sanitation issues

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New Orleans Patients Exposed to Rare Brain Disease

RTR

October 28, 2000 7:32AM

 

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) -

Eight patients may have been exposed to a rare and fatal brain ailment

after they were operated on with the same instruments that had been used on

a person who died of the illness, officials at Tulane University Hospital say.

 

The patients were notified of the danger after it was discovered the

instruments may have been tainted with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a variant

of which is linked to " mad cow " disease.

 

The instruments received routine washing and sterilization after being used

earlier on a patient later found to have died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,

but the hospital said Friday that the risk of spreading the brain-wasting

ailment may not have been eliminated.

 

The Wall Street Journal said the incident began in March when the original

patient underwent surgery, but the hospital in New Orleans did not tell the

other eight patients about the problem until this week.

 

The hospital, in a statement by its vice president Alan Miller, said only

that the " the eight patients who potentially have been exposed have been

contacted, and we are providing counseling and the related medical care

they need. " Miller said the names of the people would not be released.

 

Medical experts said it was impossible to know if the patients, all of whom

underwent brain surgery, would contract the mysterious disease. Symptoms

may not develop for years and its presence is detected only through

autopsy, they said.

 

Autopsy results on the original patient, which the Journal said were known

in May, found that the patient had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which leaves

the brain with holes and a sponge-like consistency. It causes progressive

dementia, loss of physical functions and death.

 

ROUTINE WASHING OF INSTRUMENTS

 

Before the autopsy, the surgical tools that had been used on the infected

patient were used on the eight people now at risk.

 

" After the patient was treated, the surgical instruments used were put

through normal washing and sterilization procedures and used in operations

involving eight other patients, " Miller said in a statement.

 

" The Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease risk is reduced by washing, but not

eliminated by normal sterilization protocols. The eight patients who may

have been exposed ... might have some risk of contracting the disease, " he

said.

 

Miller said the tainted tools had been " taken out of service " and that the

federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been notified.

 

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy,

better known as mad cow disease, which is thought to be transmitted to

humans through the eating of infected beef.

At least 70 people in Great Britain have died from the bovine-related illness.

 

The disease is thought to be transmitted through infected proteins called

" prions. "

 

The CDC estimates the annual incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob is about one

case per million people.

 

The Tulane hospital is a unit of HCA-Healthcare Corp. (HCA.N), whose stock

closed down 7/16 to 39 9/16 on Friday.