CJD kills vegetarian

[Guest guest]

CJD kills vegetarian

Apr 27 2003

 

By Fionnuala Bourke

Ê

Jorawar Gill was brought up as a vegetarian - but died

of the human form of mad cow disease.

The 20-year-old, a popular straight-A student, had everything

to live for and dreamed of becoming a history professor.

But three weeks ago Jorawar died from variant Creutzfeldt

Jakob Disease - believed to be passed on through

contaminated meat.

His family are still in shock and mourning the tragic,

inexplicable loss of their son who fought the neurological

disease for two and a half-years.

And they want to know how he could have developed the killer

condition when he was brought up in a vegetarian household

and only ever ate a minimal amount of beef?

 

The answer could lie in gelatin - a meat protein used in

products like yoghurt and alcohol.

Although there was a cluster of cases in the Leicestershire

village of Queniborough three years ago, the Midlands has

the lowest mortality rate of the disease in the country.

And experts say while the number of cases is still rising,

the rate at which the disease is spreading is slowing down.

But all that is of little comfort to the Gill family who live in

Marston, near Sutton Coldfield.

Jorawar's brother Jodhbir, 23, said his parents, Nirbhal

and Jasbir and sister Gurpreet were still coming to terms

with the death.

 

He said: " We first noticed something was wrong in January

2001 when Jorawar had difficulty walking upstairs and with

his writing. His hands also kept shaking.

" He had always been really active and loved to play football.

" He was a real high-flyer, a straight-A student. But before long

he became so weak he did not even have the strength to go to

school. "

Jorawar is believed to be the first Asian person to die from

vCJD in England. His case is especially tragic due to his

minimal contact with meat.

 

Jodhbir, a tax consultant, said: " Jorawar was brought up as

a vegetarian and our parents do not eat meat at all.

" But he did very occasionally eat beef when he was out, but

only on a handful of occasions.

" That makes it all the more upsetting that he developed this

disease.

" When he was first diagnosed we kept looking to see how he

could have contracted the illness, but it is impossible to trace.

" We have no idea how he caught it, but it could have been

gelatin which is in lots of other food products. "

 

Jorawar's friends and family supported him throughout his

illness and his parents gave up work at local factories to nurse

him.

 

Jodhbir said: " His friends from Coleshill School kept coming

round to see him when he could no longer go to school and

he really appreciated the support.

" He never gave up hope that he would recover. But in the end it

was as though his spirit wanted to live, but his body could no

longer go on.

 

" There were over 300 people at his funeral with friends and

family from around the world attending.

" We are Sikhs and our family and friends here, in India and

Canada all prayed for Jorawar throughout his illness.

" Mum and Dad were amazing. They gave up work to give him

round the clock care. "

 

Jorawar battled against vCJD for two-and-a-half years makes

him one of the longest survivors of the disease. But his family

are upset that the illness was not diagnosed earlier.

Jodhbir said: " The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham

had still not diagnosed Jorawar after 12 months and we are

very concerned about that delay.

" In the end he was referred to St Mary's hospital in

Paddington,

London, where his symptoms were instantly confirmed as vCJD.

" That was in April last year. I can't describe how we felt

when

we were told what was wrong with him. It was just emptiness,

a void, but we never gave up.

" We always believed that he would get better. There is a lot of

research into the disease and we hoped that they would find

a cure for Jorawar.

" We were told that he would be lucky to see August 2002, but

he was still here right up until the beginning of April this year.

 

" That was down to Jorawar. He was a fighter and tried his

best to get better.

" He did not spend too much time in hospital and preferred to

be at home. We did give him some homeopathic treatment

and he seemed to respond well to that.

" He didn't have a mark on him when he died. He was bedridden

for a year-and-a-half and did not even have any bed sores. "

Dr Richard Knight, a neurologist at the National CJD Disease

Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, said research into the disease

was still continuing.

He said: " The most reasonable hypothesis links vCJD to BSE,

the disease found in cattle.

" It is likely that human food became contaminated with the

disease which is why the cases have occurred.

" There is statistical evidence that the epidemic is no longer

increasing at the rate seen previously and that it may have

reached or be reaching a peak.

" But this finding cannot be interpreted as definitive evidence

that the epidemic has reached its peak and is now in decline.

 

" We have had an instance of vegetarians contracting the disease.

" Even people who do not eat meat are exposed to beef through

gelatin which is used in many foods and drinks including

yoghurt and wine. "

The latest annual report from the surveillance unit states

that the Midlands has the lowest mortality rate of the

disease.

The total number of probable and definite deaths from

vCJD is 127 - with seven people currently living with the

disease in the UK.

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

Although it is a sad thing that this person died, I would

have thought that most vegetarians would not eat things

containing gelatin, at least not knowingly.

 

> " Even people who do not eat meat are exposed to beef through

> gelatin which is used in many foods and drinks including

> yoghurt and wine. "

 

I stopped eating certain types of yogurt which clearly

indicated on their label that they contained gelatin.

Not all yogurts do, at least according to their labels.

Of course, now I have to look much closer at wine labels

(which in itself, as noted below, may not help)

or start contacting wine companies. I hadn't heard

nor read that wine contains gelatins before this.

 

Of course, after looking at the web site noted below,

it looks like gelatin is used as a clarifier (fining

agent) in some wines

 

a) wines won't necessarily indicate that that

have used gelatin as a clarifier

 

b) Even if the label says it is " unfined " it

may not be truthful since regulatory

scrutiny isn't that great.

 

c) Gelatin, if used as a clarifying agent,

seems to be removed after clarification

is complete but not all of the time. I

feel certain that the complete elimination

of gelatin from the wine would not be

financially feasible.

 

I see " Gelatin pulls suspended material out of

wine, and less expensive wines may use this material. "

....

" The ingredient list of a wine will not state

the clarifier as an ingredient because it is removed

from the final product. Calling or writing to a

particular wine company may be the best way to

discover which fining agent they use. "

 

The above quotes are from:

<http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj97jan/971wine.htm>

 

The whole page is good reading material, IMHO.

 

Gelatins are also in many types of candies, like

peppermint altoids.

 

Gary

[Guest guest]

On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Gary wrote:

 

> Although it is a sad thing that this person died, I would

> have thought that most vegetarians would not eat things

> containing gelatin, at least not knowingly.

 

But the thing was this person wasn't a vegetarian, just raised in a

vegetarian household. It was stated he ate beef on occassion when eating

out which does not make him a vegetarian just someone who doesn't eat much

meat. It does highlight the risk with catching CJD though ie that you

don't have to be a big consumer of beef to get it. Also I have heard the

suggestion you could get it from dairy products but that has never been

proven as far as I am aware.

 

> Of course, now I have to look much closer at wine labels

> (which in itself, as noted below, may not help)

> or start contacting wine companies. I hadn't heard

> nor read that wine contains gelatins before this.

 

A good list of vegetarian & vegan alcohol can be found at

www.vnv.org.au/alcohol.html

 

Regards to the fish,

LisA

ICQ#: 15562604

*** www.gu.uwa.edu.au/clubs/vegies ***

 

" It is equally bewildering to me that evidently there are grown men who

take pride in their ability to outwit a fish. "

-Tom Lehrer

[Guest guest]

Thanks so the link Lisa... I had never much thought about wine not being

vegetarian before.... this discussion has opened up my eyes about that.

 

Thanks again...

 

Sara in Toronto

ID: fitgirl1979

~*~*~*~

" God bless those Pagans " - Homer (The Simpson's)

~*~*~*~

 

 

 

 

A good list of vegetarian & vegan alcohol can be found at

www.vnv.org.au/alcohol.html

 

Regards to the fish,

LisA

ICQ#: 15562604

*** www.gu.uwa.edu.au/clubs/vegies ***

 

" It is equally bewildering to me that evidently there are grown men who

take pride in their ability to outwit a fish. "

-Tom Lehrer