A man dies after eating squirrels from a rare disease

CJD: A man died after eating the brain of a squirrel

In the United States, a man died of a very rare illness after eating squirrels. By eating the animals, the 61-year-old man would apparently have been infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a fatal and incurable brain disease.

Patient lost touch with reality

As reported on the news site "Live Science", a man in the United States died of a very rare disease after ingesting the brain of a squirrel. Aged 61, he was reportedly taken to a hospital in Rochester, New York in 2015. After thinking, he lost contact with reality and can no longer work independently. The clinic's doctors found that the patient was suffering from a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).

Human variant of mad cow disease

According to Live Science, an MRI of the human head revealed that the patient's brain was similar to that seen in humans with the relatively new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), a deadly disease of the brain.

According to reports, only a few hundred cases of vCJD have been reported worldwide, most in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the consumption of contaminated beef in the United Kingdom.

"Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is considered a human variant of" mad cow disease "(BSE) and occurs in man in a" sporadic "form (with no obvious cause), in hereditary form but also in the form of infection, "explains the German Alzheimer Society e. V. on their website.

"As a result, the tissues and body fluids of diseased animals are considered potentially infectious," he continues.

The patient was an amateur hunter

In the case of Americans, it is probably the consumption of squirrels that led to the infection. Because, as reported the family of the deceased, this 61-year-old man also hunted the brain of squirrels.

As Dr. Tara Chen explained, however, that it was not clear whether the man had consumed all the brain or only contaminated meat from parts of the brain of the squirrel .

The doctor had not treated the patient herself, but had exposed the case by writing a report on suspected cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that she had seen at her hospital over the past five years. years.

Extremely rare disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a disease that affects about one in a million people worldwide, according to the report published in the Science on Line section.

It is a "debilitating disease" that progresses rapidly and usually leads to death in the year following the diagnosis, said Chen.

There is no treatment or cure.

Nevertheless, a quick diagnosis of CJK is important, otherwise it could possibly lead to infections in other people.

The report highlights the need for physicians to monitor the diagnosis of CJD.

Also in this country, doctors have warned of this dangerous disease. (Ad)