Mad Cow Disease In Humans, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Mad Cow Disease in humans, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Ever since the first TV and newspaper pictures of Mad Cow Disease with cows falling on their legs and foaming at the mouth appear in 1990s, many people in Singapore and worldwide have been fearful of taking beef.
Even the popular Bovril extract made of beef has its ingredients of beef changed to vegetables

Mad Cow Disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is an infectious disease caused by prions that affect the brains of cattle.
When humans eat diseased tissue from cattle, they may form the human form of mad cow disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) or new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD).
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the classic form normally happens in older people either through an inherited tendency of the brain to change or the disease happens naturally for no apparent reason.
The form diagnosed as occurring from eating diseased cattle happens in younger people and has abnormal medical features, with outstanding psychiatric or sensory symptoms at the time of medical presentation and delayed start of neurological abnormalities.
These neurological abnormalities are:
1. Ataxia within weeks or months,
2. Dementia (loss of memory and confusion) and
3. Myoclonus late in the illness,
4. A duration of illness of at least six months, and
5. A diffusely abnormal non-diagnostic electroencephalogram.
The transmissible causes that produce the disease in both cattle and humans are atypical protein particles called prions.
Prions are not like bacteria or viruses that cause other infectious diseases; rather, they are considered infectious abnormal proteins that are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins.
The abnormal prions are found in the brain, spinal cord, eye (in the retina), and other tissues of the nervous system of affected animals or humans
All prion diseases are fatal.
Animals and humans who develop a prion disease will die of it.
There is no effective treatment
Symptoms
Infected adult cattle may develop signs of the disease slowly.
It may take from two to eight years from the time an animal becomes infected until it first shows signs of disease
Similar symptoms may develop in humans: muscle spasms, lack of muscle control, worsening problems with memory.
Doctors found psychiatric symptoms in early stages of the disease.
These included depression, withdrawal, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.
Within four months of the disease onset, those affected developed poor memory and an unsteady gait.
Other symptoms:
1. Dementia that gets worse quickly over a few weeks
2. Blurred vision
3. Personality changes
4. Confusion, disorientation
5. Hallucinations
6. Lack of coordination (stumbling and falling)
7. Nervous, jumpy feelings
Diagnosis:
Early in the CJD disease, the doctor performing a nervous system and mental examination will reveal memory and thinking disorders
Later in the disease, a motor system examination may show:
Abnormal reflexes or increased normal reflex responses
Increased muscle tone
Muscle twitching and spasms
Strong startle response
Weakness and loss of muscle tissue
Loss of coordination
MRI and CT scan of brain
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Spinal tap to test for a protein called 14-3-3
Brain biopsy
Treatment:
There is no known cure for this disease
The doctor will provide medicines to ease symptoms:
Antibiotics
Drugs for epilepsy
Antidepressants
Interferon
Medicines can help control aggression
All prion diseases cause death
The progress from symptoms to diagnosis to death may be quick from 8 to 24 months
Death is due to infection, heart failure, pneumonia

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Mad Cow Disease
Chapter 2 C

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Nov 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370865864

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

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