The fetus "kills" his mother after having infected with a rare disease

A woman died of a rare neurological disease that her son had infected while it was only a fetus while she was pregnant with him there was several decades.

The fetus transmitted to his mother the rare disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob, which took all these years to develop.

The adult now is born with a rare genetic mutation that causes brain damage that results in decreased mental functions and movements.

The man inherited the pathology of his father. who died years ago. However, what surprised the doctors is that the woman, who died at age 70, does not seem to have undergone genetic modification, but died in the same way.

The specialists concluded that the mother was infected with the virus. Sickness due to his son during pregnancy since the fetal cells pbaded to the placenta and crossed the body to reach his brain.

The doctor and researcher at Copenahague University Hospital, Ausrine Arekeviciute explained that when women are pregnant, fetal cells cross the placenta and reach various organs of the mother.

Today, the son is still alive, although he is suffering from the disease.

It is precisely the medical diagnosis of the son that led physicians to think that his mother, who did not have the genetic mutation badociated with the disease, could have been contagious. or his own son.

"There is no treatment and the prognosis is not good," said Dr. Ausrine Arekeviciute. "It's a sad story," he said. The case was published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology

. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can occur spontaneously, be inherited or be transmitted by contact with infected tissue, for example during a transplant or by eating meat. contaminated.

TEXT: RODRIGO GONZÁLEZ