Podcasts about vcjd

The need for blood is constant, and every day lives are saved thanks to the generosity of blood donors. With a law change last year, even more people in New Zealand can now become blood donors. The removal of the ban on those who lived in the UK, France, or Ireland between 1980 and 1996 means thousands more Kiwis are now eligible to donate. This restriction was originally introduced due to concerns about Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), also known as Mad Cow Disease. New research published in the journal Blood suggests that in addition to helping save lives, being a regular blood donor might also reduce your risk of developing certain blood cancers. The study compared the blood of 200 healthy male blood donors in their 60s. One group had donated blood three times a year for 40 years, while the other had donated only around five times in total. While both groups showed a similar number of natural genetic mutations that accumulate with age, the type of mutation in stem cells differed: 50 percent of the frequent donors had a specific genetic variation. 30 percent of the irregular donors showed the same mutation. Interestingly, this genetic change is not linked to a higher risk of blood cancers like leukaemia. In fact, lab tests showed that blood stem cells from frequent donors were good at producing healthy red blood cells. As we age, stem cells in our bone marrow naturally accumulate mutations, resulting in groups of blood cells with slightly different genetic makeups. Sometimes, these mutations can increase the risk of blood cancers like leukaemia. One gene of particular interest in this study is called DNMT3A, which is known to be mutated in people who develop leukaemia. However, researchers found that the mutations in DNMT3A observed in frequent donors occurred in areas not associated with a pre-leukemic risk. When you donate blood, your body responds by producing new blood cells to replace what was lost. This process places mild stress on the body, which appears to promote the renewal of healthy blood stem cells and select for mutations that favour growth rather than disease. These findings add another potential benefit to regular blood donation. While the research does not prove that donating blood directly reduces the risk of blood cancer, it suggests that the process of blood renewal may positively influence the genetic makeup of stem cells. With the recent eligibility changes in New Zealand, there has never been a better time to become a donor. By giving blood, you not only help those in need but may also support your own long-term health. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mad Cow Disease is a contagious illness caused by a harmful protein affecting the nervous system of cows. Eating infected beef can cause people to get a similar disease called vCJD. It affects the nervous system and causes memory loss, coordination problems, and dementia. Properly handling and cooking beef can prevent the spread of the disease. I hope you tune into this fantastic episode and Remember To Keep It Sossy:) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soslan-temanson/message

Mother Christine Lord becomes obsessed with the now infamous episode of agriculture minister John Gummer feeding his daughter a beef burger on TV in 1990. She wants to know what killed her son - and beef is the prime suspect. But as she investigates, she finds all is not as it seems. Three decades on from the incident, John Gummer casts doubt on the widely-believed story that infected beef is what caused vCJD in humans. Written, presented and produced by Lucy Proctor

The BSE crisis becomes a lightning rod for other safety issues in the countryside. Organic farmer Mark Purdey becomes convinced pesticides are to blame for making cows go mad, and thinks they caused vCJD in humans too. He sets out to prove his claims by crowd-funding for lab experiments. He becomes the star of the alternative mad cow disease community, for people who refuse to believe the official government narrative on BSE – or any other official narrative, for that matter. Written, presented and produced by Lucy Proctor

As of January, Bloodworks Northwest now has access to as many as one thousand new donors in the Pacific Northwest simply because an FDA deferral is being lifted. As Bloodworks 101 producer John Yeager tells us, that's because new evidence has led the FDA to remove the deferral requirement associated with time spent in the U.K., France, and Ireland due to the risk of vCJD also known as Mad Cow Disease.This comes as music to the ears of donor James Bancroft and as Bancroft can tell you - it's about time.

Experts tell us that on January 18th, 2023, Bloodworks Northwest could have access to as many as one thousand new donors in the Pacific Northwest simply because an FDA deferral is being lifted. As Bloodworks 101 producer John Yeager tells us, that's because new evidence has led the FDA to remove the deferral requirement associated with time spent in the U.K., France, and Ireland due to the risk of vCJD also known as Mad Cow Disease. 

From the European Society for Clinical Virology 2022 Conference in Manchester UK, Vincent speaks with Richard Knight about prion diseases and the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalitis that led to cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Host: Vincent Racaniello Guest: Richard Knight Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit Clinical diagnosis of human prion disease (Prog Mol Biol Trans Sci) Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Handbook Clin Viral) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Adv Exp Med Biol) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

Najczęstsze wypadki w laboratoriach to wybuchy. Ale my nie o tym. Wybraliśmy przypadki dziwne, nieoczywiste, zaskakujące, z drugim dnem. Niektóre miały zaskakująco dobre zakończenia, inne – niespodziewanie tragiczne. Bycie naukowcem bywa naprawdę niebezpieczne.Jeżeli cenisz to co robimy, jeśli podoba Ci się nasz podcast, to będzie nam bardzo miło, jeśli zechcesz pomóc nam jego w tworzeniu dzięki Patronite:https://patronite.pl/crazynaukaJeśli wolisz dorzucić nam coś jednorazowo, to również będzie nam bardzo miło. Może postawisz nam kawę? Dzięki! :)https://buycoffee.to/crazynaukaLinki do odcinka:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Kelley_criticality_accidenthttps://www.crazynauka.pl/rdzen-demona-kula-plutonu-ktora-zabila-dwoch-naukowcow/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McCluskeyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorskihttps://www.labsafety.org/fail-proof-fail-the-microbiologist-killed-by-his-own-experimenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahnhttps://www.livescience.com/mad-cow-disease-lab-accident-vCJD.htmlhttps://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2013/space-human-bodyhttps://www.crazynauka.pl/ospa-prawdziwa-setki-milionow-jej-ofiar-i-ostatnia-z-nich-janet-parker-mija-40-lat-od-eradykacji-choroby/https://www.crazynauka.pl/czlowiek-ktory-przezyl-w-prozni-jak-to-naprawde-wyglada/https://www.labsafety.org/memorial-wall

Najczęstsze wypadki w laboratoriach to wybuchy. Ale my nie o tym. Wybraliśmy przypadki dziwne, nieoczywiste, zaskakujące, z drugim dnem. Niektóre miały zaskakująco dobre zakończenia, inne – niespodziewanie tragiczne. Bycie naukowcem bywa naprawdę niebezpieczne.Jeżeli cenisz to co robimy, jeśli podoba Ci się nasz podcast, to będzie nam bardzo miło, jeśli zechcesz pomóc nam jego w tworzeniu dzięki Patronite:https://patronite.pl/crazynaukaJeśli wolisz dorzucić nam coś jednorazowo, to również będzie nam bardzo miło. Może postawisz nam kawę? Dzięki! :)https://buycoffee.to/crazynaukaLinki do odcinka:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Kelley_criticality_accidenthttps://www.crazynauka.pl/rdzen-demona-kula-plutonu-ktora-zabila-dwoch-naukowcow/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McCluskeyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorskihttps://www.labsafety.org/fail-proof-fail-the-microbiologist-killed-by-his-own-experimenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahnhttps://www.livescience.com/mad-cow-disease-lab-accident-vCJD.htmlhttps://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2013/space-human-bodyhttps://www.crazynauka.pl/ospa-prawdziwa-setki-milionow-jej-ofiar-i-ostatnia-z-nich-janet-parker-mija-40-lat-od-eradykacji-choroby/https://www.crazynauka.pl/czlowiek-ktory-przezyl-w-prozni-jak-to-naprawde-wyglada/https://www.labsafety.org/memorial-wall

Najczęstsze wypadki w laboratoriach to wybuchy. Ale my nie o tym. Wybraliśmy przypadki dziwne, nieoczywiste, zaskakujące, z drugim dnem. Niektóre miały zaskakująco dobre zakończenia, inne – niespodziewanie tragiczne. Bycie naukowcem bywa naprawdę niebezpieczne. Sklep z naszymi koszulkami: https://kreatorium.com/pl/c/Crazy-Nauka/109 Linki do odcinka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Kelley_criticality_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McCluskey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski https://www.labsafety.org/fail-proof-fail-the-microbiologist-killed-by-his-own-experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn https://www.livescience.com/mad-cow-disease-lab-accident-vCJD.html https://www.labsafety.org/memorial-wal

Make your health an act of rebellion. Join The Healthy Rebellion Please Subscribe and Review: Apple Podcasts | RSS Submit your questions for the podcast here News topic du jour: https://twitter.com/davidludwigmd/status/1552636115139514368 Podcast Questions: 1. Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer and Elk [15:52] Kristi says: Hi Robb and Nicki, I have a new fear just when I am already worried about the future of meat, transportation, the economy, etc. I bought some elk liver from a ranch that sells grass-fed bison, elk, and beef. I went to fry it, and it did not smell the same as bison or beef liver. And while I'm sure that's just how elk liver smells, I started worrying about chronic wasting disease(CWD), which Joe Rogan brought up on the March 2020 episode with the infectious disease epidemiologist, Michael Osterholm. (The episode that in my mind started off the covid pandemic.) I ended up throwing away the elk meat, and then looked into chronic wasting disease more. So far, no known cases have spread to humans as vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease), but that was also true of mad cow disease, and I'm sure chronic wasting disease showing up in humans will take longer since way fewer people eat elk or deer. I am in one of the areas of North America where chronic wasting disease is present, and since I bought the meat from a farm, the elk is apparently tested (they send away the heads to get tested), however it says this doesn't guarantee they're free of CWD. Now I think I should just stick to beef/bison, since the downside of Jakob Creutzfeldt disease is so terrible, but I was also thinking if I do this I shouldn't even buy bison or beef from the same farm, since prions are notoriously hard to destroy, and would stick around on the butchering equipment. Do you have any knowledge or insight on this topic? Am I overreacting? Thanks and keep up the great work with the show. 2. Digestion Woes [23:40] Kelly says: Hi Robb and Nicki, hoping you can help me with everyone's favorite topic, poo! I'll cut to the chase. My BMs are a 6-7 on the Bristol stool chart, every day. Usually 3 times per day, and all before 9 am. This has been going on for a few months now. I don't have any stomach pain or bloating, just really liquid poo. My diet is good, I eat mostly red meat, eggs, fruit, white rice, and I don't exclude dairy or gluten because I've never had any sensitivity to it, but maybe that's a good place to start? I do drink alcohol a couple times per week, but haven't noticed a difference when I remove alcohol. I am also a coffee drinker, but I hope that's not the culprit! Just looking for your thoughts on the best place to start, anything I should ask my doctor to run test-wise? I had an IgG test done a couple years ago and that didn't show anything to avoid except things like chia seeds and some random things like that. Thank you both for all you do, me and my hubs listen every week and appreciate your common sense approach to health and recent policy topics. Robb and Nicki for President! 3. Organic? [29:08] Mark says: Hi Robb & Nicki, I've read Wired & Eat & Sacred Cow & drink LMNT (love, chocolate salt in goat milk is a favorite). I've been reading some of the comments from the FarmBabe basically that she now goes out-of-the-way "not" to buy/eat food labeled Organic (she seems not to like StoneyField or at least would like them to stop spreading misinformation) .  I've also read some of her battles with "Bobby" aka FlavCity.  It's hard to sort out if what she's saying is true or if as a non-organic farmer she's biased in any way.  Any insight would be helpful, especially considering current food prices.  I seem to always want to buy Organic, am I wasting my money? All the best, Mark Sponsor: The Healthy Rebellion Radio is sponsored by our electrolyte company, LMNT. Proper hydration is more than just drinking water. You need electrolytes too! Check out The Healthy Rebellion Radio sponsor LMNT for grab-and-go electrolyte packets to keep you at your peak! They give you all the electrolytes want, none of the stuff you don't. Click here to get your LMNT electrolytes Transcript: You can find the transcript at the blog page: https://robbwolf.com/2022/07/29/chronic-wasting-disease-in-deer-digestion-woes-avoiding-organic-foods-thrr118/

When I was a kid, I thought two things were going to be much bigger problems in my life than they actually are - quicksand and mad cow disease. Turns out that they aren't but mad cow disease is still the stuff of science-fiction nightmares. Mad cow disease is caused by the spread of prions, proteins that weaponize our own cells against us and cause proteins to misfold and aggregate, slowly killing neurons throughout the brain. The disease is characterized by rapid and fatal neurodegeneration. Want to get the shit scared out of you by learning about the truth behind mad cow disease? Come and listen!Please rate, review, and subscribe and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, queries, or complaints, please email me at neuroscienceamateurhour@gmail.com or DM me at NeuroscienceAmateurHour on Instagram.Citations and relevant pictures are below:About BSE BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/bse/about.htmlLegname G. Elucidating the function of the prion protein. True HL, ed. PLOS Pathogens. 2017;13(8):e1006458. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006458Jung MJ, Pistolesi D, Panà A. Prions, prion diseases and decontamination. Igiene E Sanita Pubblica. 2003;59(5):331-344. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14981553/Lanska DJ. The mad cow problem in the UK: risk perceptions, risk management, and health policy development. Journal of Public Health Policy. 1998;19(2):160-183. Accessed April 11, 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9670700/MRI used to detect vCJD. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2000;163(3):324. Accessed April 11, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC80326/Macfarlane RG, Wroe SJ, Collinge J, Yousry TA, Jäger HR. Neuroimaging findings in human prion disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 2007;78(7):664-670. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.094821NHS Choices. Overview - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. NHS. Published 2019. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/‌Mead S, Khalili-Shirazi A, Potter C, et al. Prion protein monoclonal antibody (PRN100) therapy for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease: evaluation of a first-in-human treatment programme. The Lancet Neurology. 2022;21(4):342-354. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(22)00082-5Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/neuroscienceamateurhour)

"Mad Cow Disease" emerged in the United Kingdom in 1986. Named from the symptoms seen in cattle, it was eventually renamed more appropriately to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). When humans are infected, the disease seen is variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease (vCJD).  This episode explores the story of how a prion shaped the beef and biotech industries and revealed a failure in questions and ethics.  We are joined by Dr. Fiona Houston (senior researcher and veterinarian), Anne McVey (ethics advocate and mother of a victim), and Kelly Creighton (biologics manufacturing regulatory expert).Join us to learn how scientists tackle emerging infections, why we need to ask the hard questions, and how this prion has shaped the industry.  

Today I welcome medical sociologist Kiheung Kim to talk about the many different aspects of COVID in South Korea. Before I get started with Kiheung Kim, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that today marks the 300th episode of COVIDCalls.  When I started doing COVIDCalls in March of 2020 it was a resource for daily discussion when information about how to react to the pandemic was literally evolving minute by minute.  To me the urgency of the daily calls was about getting disaster experts into conversation about their research, and getting their expertise into the news cycle.  Over time the project became a site of exploration—a place (among many) where the widest variety of experts/survivors/witnesses could be in dialogue (I was lucky to be on the mic with them).  Everyday we have been trying to make sense of the pandemic, and trying to also make sense of the tools we have to create and sustain this knowledge.  Over the past couple of months—especially as the pandemic has moved into its next act in North America, I've noticed a shift.  Not that the search for knowing COVID is by any means at an end, but rather that people are turning to COVIDCalls as a way to take stock of what happened over the past 18 months.  I should say, for guests who are expert in Brazil or India, or here where I am in S. Korea—this is not yet time for a post action report or a eulogy—COVID is still a very serious daily threat to life.  Still, there is among many a sense of passage—a movement out of one life and into another.  For me that means waiting for a vaccination—but the wait isn't endless—I see it on a calendar. I have heard people say that they are eager just to forget and move on—I even had one person chastise me on Twitter for wanting to linger with the memory of COVID, almost as if I've made a choice to reside in the darkness of it.  I've thought about that a lot—and you know what maybe there is a truth there—even when my own daily risk goes down through vaccination (not yet!) I know I will want to reside in this space of uncertainty and concern a while longer—this is a place of vigilance, and of action, and I worry that I will—that society will—move to closure and forgetting before the power of the uncertainty and fear provokes us to act.  And act we must—we have so much to do for our health systems, our struggles for justice, our schools, our care workers—COVID shows the need for reform at every turn.  So let's get vaccinated and live, but let's not let go of this feeling of—what else can I call it—fear, of deep concern—until we've done what we can do for a safer future.  Disaster Memory is not apolitical, it is not uncritical, it is not behind glass at a museum——memory can provoke—and the future of COVID memory is literally being made right now—we are making it. The memory of COVID is already a battleground of competing explanations and ideologies—not all of them in good faith, and some of them very dangerous. It's not a choice to remember or forget COVID.  It's a choice among competing narratives, competing memories.  Don't let anyone tell you it wasn't that bad—or that those many months were all bad or wasted—it wasn't one thing or another.  COVID was, and is, as diverse as life and society itself.  COVID forced us to create new practices of work and sociability, even some new ways of living—some attention to the brokenness of the old ways--that we might not want to give up so quickly.  That's good and useful.  But at the core there is also a struggle to learn hard lessons from it. Let's work together to sustain the lessons based in the grim truth of unnecessary deaths, compassion for those still suffering, and a just recovery to come. Let me thank Shivani Patel, Bucky Stanton, Hyunah Keum, and Eleanor Mayes.  AND let me tell you that in a few weeks time the CCalls research portal will launch—plus we have more guest hosts coming: including Kim Fortun, Jacob Steere-Williams, and Kristin Urquiza (thanks Felicia Henry).  Stay tuned. Kiheung Kim is a professor at Postech (Pohang University of Science and Technology) in South Korea. He graduated from the sociology department at Sogang University and did his PhD at Science Studies Unit of the University of Edinburgh where he worked on the social studies of infectious diseases, in particular, mad cow disease (BSE, scrapie and vCJD).  Kiheung worked at the Welcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London and moved to do laboratory studies at the Chemical Engineering Department, Imperial College London. He is interested in the social aspects of animal and human infectious diseases like Foot-and-Mouth Disease, MERS and Covid-19. He published a book, "Social Construction of Disease: From Scrapie to Prions" (Routledge, 2007). 

Mad cow disease! Cause we're feeling a little cRaZy!!!Join John, Sabrina, Tyler, and the ghost of John's apartment as we discuss prions, Mad Cow Disease, the eighties and Stranger Things! Mad Cow Disease, or vCJD, ravaged the UK in the late 80s/90s. What happened? Where did it go? Is it coming back? Tune in to find out!Sci Club Pod is created by John Lavery, Tyler Sudholz and Sabrina Wilson. This episode's report and audio editing were by John Lavery.Contact us: Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @SciClubPod or email ScienceClubPod@gmail.comReferences:Subviral particles: viroids and prions | Cells | MCAT | Khan Academy (YouTube)Stanley Prusiner: 'A Nobel prize doesn't wipe the scepticism away' (The Guardian)Stanley B. Prusiner Facts (The Nobel Prize website)Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au)Fact Sheet - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (inspectio.gc.ca)Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Fact Sheet (ninds.nih.gov)BSE Disaster: The History (NewScience)Many more people could still die from mad cow disease in the UK (New Scientist)More information about donating blood if you have lived in the UK (Australian Red Cross Lifeblood)

Today's episode is all about the mystery of the unexpected killer. We all believe we can spot the villain, right? It's the guy with the goatee, the scar, wearing the black hat... the 'Bad Guy'. Think again!

Although most Sterile Processing professionals around the globe have heard of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and prions, there are still many misconceptions around these topics and their importance in the context of Sterile Processing. On this episode of the Beyond Clean podcast, we talk to one of the world's foremost experts on the topic of prions and vCJD, Dr. David Perrett, Professor Emeritus of Bioanalytical Science, Barts & The London School of Medicine. Tune in this week for an introduction to prions, background to why they have become so pervasive in the news, and what you should be doing about it in your hospital. Grab your OR Director and Infection Preventionist to huddle around the stereo for this one! Complete The Exam For CE Credit! #Prions #CJD #vCJD #Microbiology #Science #SterileProcessing #DavidPerrett #Protein #SPD #CSSD #OR #PatientSafety #OperatingRoom #Risk #Safety #Surgery #BeyondClean #WeFightDirty #Sponsors #ReadySetSurgical #Endoplus 

Recently, in Tromsø, the Arctic capital of Norway, I came across the name Carleton Gajdusek. That name took me back many years and halfway round the globe to a village in the Fore district of Papua New Guinea. A man is standing in the doorway of his hut, clinging to the doorpost, his head nodding, before making his way unsteadily, emaciated and ataxic, to another hut. He has kuru. Dr Gajdusek was an American virologist and he spent the last years of his life in Tromsø. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on the aetiology of kuru. Traditionally, the Fore people honoured their dead by eating their flesh, the men receiving the muscles for strength, the women being left with the brain and scrag ends. The custom of eating human flesh had already died out with the missionaries, and Gajdusek hypothesized that kuru was caused by an infective agent – he called it a ‘slow virus’– with a long incubation period. He postulated that it was concentrated in the nervous system, explaining why women were more likely to develop kuru than men. He showed that chimpanzees injected with brain tissue from dead kuru sufferers developed the disease. We now know that kuru, like vCJD and some other fatal neurodegenerative conditions, is a prion disease. Cannibalism has a deep, transgressive and occasionally pathological fascination. Remember Hansel and Gretel? Cannibalism runs through Evelyn Waugh’s Black Mischief: Basil Seal sees a red beret in a cooking pot and realizes that he has just eaten his girlfriend. In 1991 The Silence of the Lambs attracted huge audiences and five Oscars. Early maps showed distant continents inhabited by monstrous beings and by cannibals. Geographical features became more accurate but the myths survived. Many of the monsters were clearly imagined. But we cannot be sure about the cannibalism. How far can early explorers’ and missionaries’ accounts be trusted? Depicting the inhabitants as savages permitted Europeans to subjugate them in the name of civilization, and to exploit their resources. Even if sometimes, as in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609, it was the European colonists who resorted to cannibalism. Modern techniques show that post-ice-age Britons in Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge butchered other humans. In the 15,000 years since then, there is uncomfortable evidence of cannibalism almost everywhere researchers look. Though it is rarely clear whether the victims were killed for their meat, or what the purpose was. To honour the dead, to intimidate or punish enemies, to celebrate victory, to stave off starvation, as a remedy or a ghoulish gourmand treat? I try to imagine what it might be like to butcher another human. Of course I have cut the flesh off a human. A living human. Making that first incision into a draped abdomen was always breaking a taboo. Once inside I just got on with the job, perhaps the same emotional shift happens to people desperate enough to cannibalise. But ‘Eating people is wrong’ as Junior declares in the Flanders and Swann song, so even those who have eaten human flesh as a last resort to survive are reluctant to admit it. In 1846 a wagon train set out from Missouri for California. Heavy snow trapped the pioneers in the Donner Pass for nearly four months till a relief party arrived. Some of the 48 survivors were unwilling to admit that they had survived by eating the flesh of their dead colleagues. We don’t know what discussions went on in the Donner Pass, but when the plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and their supporters crashed on a remote glacier in the Andes, the survivors agreed that should they die, their bodies should be eaten to give their companions a chance of life. Two months later, 16 people were rescued. Knowledge of the survival pact mitigated the initial horror with which the events were greeted. Still, acknowledging cannibalism would tarnish the image of true British heroes. No-one survived John Franklin’s expedition to na...

Recently, in Tromsø, the Arctic capital of Norway, I came across the name Carleton Gajdusek. That name took me back many years and halfway round the globe to a village in the Fore district of Papua New Guinea. A man is standing in the doorway of his hut, clinging to the doorpost, his head nodding, before making his way unsteadily, emaciated and ataxic, to another hut. He has kuru. Dr Gajdusek was an American virologist and he spent the last years of his life in Tromsø. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on the aetiology of kuru. Traditionally, the Fore people honoured their dead by eating their flesh, the men receiving the muscles for strength, the women being left with the brain and scrag ends. The custom of eating human flesh had already died out with the missionaries, and Gajdusek hypothesized that kuru was caused by an infective agent – he called it a ‘slow virus'– with a long incubation period. He postulated that it was concentrated in the nervous system, explaining why women were more likely to develop kuru than men. He showed that chimpanzees injected with brain tissue from dead kuru sufferers developed the disease. We now know that kuru, like vCJD and some other fatal neurodegenerative conditions, is a prion disease. Cannibalism has a deep, transgressive and occasionally pathological fascination. Remember Hansel and Gretel? Cannibalism runs through Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief: Basil Seal sees a red beret in a cooking pot and realizes that he has just eaten his girlfriend. In 1991 The Silence of the Lambs attracted huge audiences and five Oscars. Early maps showed distant continents inhabited by monstrous beings and by cannibals. Geographical features became more accurate but the myths survived. Many of the monsters were clearly imagined. But we cannot be sure about the cannibalism. How far can early explorers' and missionaries' accounts be trusted? Depicting the inhabitants as savages permitted Europeans to subjugate them in the name of civilization, and to exploit their resources. Even if sometimes, as in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609, it was the European colonists who resorted to cannibalism. Modern techniques show that post-ice-age Britons in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge butchered other humans. In the 15,000 years since then, there is uncomfortable evidence of cannibalism almost everywhere researchers look. Though it is rarely clear whether the victims were killed for their meat, or what the purpose was. To honour the dead, to intimidate or punish enemies, to celebrate victory, to stave off starvation, as a remedy or a ghoulish gourmand treat? I try to imagine what it might be like to butcher another human. Of course I have cut the flesh off a human. A living human. Making that first incision into a draped abdomen was always breaking a taboo. Once inside I just got on with the job, perhaps the same emotional shift happens to people desperate enough to cannibalise. But ‘Eating people is wrong' as Junior declares in the Flanders and Swann song, so even those who have eaten human flesh as a last resort to survive are reluctant to admit it. In 1846 a wagon train set out from Missouri for California. Heavy snow trapped the pioneers in the Donner Pass for nearly four months till a relief party arrived. Some of the 48 survivors were unwilling to admit that they had survived by eating the flesh of their dead colleagues. We don't know what discussions went on in the Donner Pass, but when the plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and their supporters crashed on a remote glacier in the Andes, the survivors agreed that should they die, their bodies should be eaten to give their companions a chance of life. Two months later, 16 people were rescued. Knowledge of the survival pact mitigated the initial horror with which the events were greeted. Still, acknowledging cannibalism would tarnish the image of true British heroes. No-one survived John Franklin's expedition to na...

Authors: Joseph Y. Abrams, MPH; Ryan A. Maddox, MPH; Alexis R Harvey, MPH; Lawrence B. Schonberger, MD; and Ermias D. Belay, MD. Interview: CDC's Joseph Y. Abrams, MPH (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases), discusses travel, hunting, and eating venison in relation to prion diseases, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "Mad Cow Disease"), variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), and chronic wasting disease (CWD). June 2011 (Vol. 111, Issue 6, Pages 858-863)

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler Guest: Trudy Rey Trudy joins the the TWiVlords to discuss new tests for detecting prions in the blood, and evidence showing that foamy retroviruses originated in the seas with their jawed vertebrate hosts at least 450 million years ago.   Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode Welcome omega tau to MicrobeTV Register for ASV 2017 Oliver Smithies dies Assays for prions in the blood (one, two) Biosafety working on prions (Michigan State) Marine origin of retroviruses in Palaeozoic era (Nature Comm) Cancer Virus by Dorothy Crawford Adenovirus and obesity (Int J Chronic Dis) Image credit Letters read on TWiV 424 Weekly Science Picks Trudy - Artist Jenni Viljaniemi Alan - Radio Garden Dickson - World's First Green Energy Boat Kathy - mSphereDirect video and web Rich - Deathworld Trilogy by Harry Harrison Vincent - Trump's Vaccine Panel (NYTimes), Offit's Response (Daily Beast), ASM Letter Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

The BMJ, BMJ Open, Heart, Thorax, and Tobacco control – all journals in BMJ's stable, have announced they will no longer carry research funded in part, or in whole, by the tobacco industry. Fiona Godlee, BMJ Editor in chief, explains what that means, and Allen Brandt, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, gives us a potted history of the way in which the tobacco industry has manipulated science. Also this week, Sebastian Brandner, professor of neuropathology at UCL, explains his research into the population prevalence of the prion which causes vCJD. See also Prevalent abnormal prion protein in human appendixes after bovine spongiform encephalopathy epizootic http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5675 Journal policy on research funded by the tobacco industry http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5193

The furore surrounding the so-called ‘mad cow’ diseases is an important and controversial episode of recent years. Although it peaked several years ago, the topic is still of great medical significance, influencing the way members of the public think about and experience science and scientists. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100 https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/16330/1/10_1159_000188082.pdf Zerr, Inga; Wirsing von König, Carl-Heinz; Willkommen, Hannelore; Strobel, Johanna; Schottstedt, Volkmar; Schlenkrich, Uwe; Nuebling, Micha; Kretzschmar, Hans; Heiden, Margarethe; Gröner, Albrecht; Dewitz, Christian von; Burger, Reinhard; Blümel, Johannes; Beekes, Michael; Seitz, Rainer

Dick and Nick are examining their faculties this week talking about fellowship exams, vCJD and news from the profession. Always on the lookout for contributors, if you want to appear on the pod, just let us know - you know where we live......

This week's podcast includes a discussion of the lead editorial about the Democratic Party's victory in the US mid-term elections; also an interview about screening mammography for younger women.