Zombie Watch

[ramonmercado]

Only Max or wolves will save us.

Chronic Wasting Disease, popularized as "Zombie Deer Disease", leaves the animals drooling, lethargic and ultimately dead. It's caused by prions–misfolding and replicating proteins that turn brains into sponges-and like Mad Cow Disease before it, it may spread to humans.

In the US and Canada, CWD has gained attention not only because it affects big-game animals but also because of the possibility that it could jump the species barrier. Deer, elk and moose could infect livestock, other mammals, birds or even humans. Epidemiologists say the absence of a "spillover" case yet does not mean it will not happen. CWD is one of a cluster of fatal neurological disorders that includes BSE.
"The BSE [mad cow] outbreak in Britain provided an example of how, overnight, things can get crazy when a spillover event happens from, say, livestock to people," Anderson says. "We're talking about the potential of something similar occurring. No one is saying that it's definitely going to happen, but it's important for people to be prepared."

Wolves are our friends. They apparently will identify and kill animals suffering from it without spreading the disease.

https://boingboing.net/2023/12/25/zombie-deer-disease-may-spread-to-humans-scientists-warn.html

 

[Swifty]

Only Max or wolves will save us.

Chronic Wasting Disease, popularized as "Zombie Deer Disease", leaves the animals drooling, lethargic and ultimately dead. It's caused by prions–misfolding and replicating proteins that turn brains into sponges-and like Mad Cow Disease before it, it may spread to humans.



Wolves are our friends. They apparently will identify and kill animals suffering from it without spreading the disease.

https://boingboing.net/2023/12/25/zombie-deer-disease-may-spread-to-humans-scientists-warn.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Not ti be mistaken for the more user friendly US Kush drug.

Deadly 'Zombie Drug' Believed to Contain Human Bones Wreaks Havoc in West Africa​

A new drug called kush is wreaking havoc in west Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone where it is estimated to kill around a dozen people each week and hospitalise thousands.

The drug, taken mostly by men aged 18 to 25, causes people to fall asleep while walking, to fall over, to bang their heads against hard surfaces and to walk into moving traffic.

Kush should not be confused with the drug of the same name found in the US, which is a mixture of "an ever-changing host of chemicals" sprayed on plant matter and smoked.

Kush in Sierra Leone is quite different; it is a mixture of cannabis, fentanyl, tramadol, formaldehyde and – according to some – ground down human bones.

It is mixed by local criminal gangs, but the constituent drugs have international sources, facilitated no doubt by the internet and digital communications.

https://www.sciencealert.com/deadly...ntain-human-bones-wreaks-havoc-in-west-africa

 

[ramonmercado]

Only Max or wolves will save us.

Chronic Wasting Disease, popularized as "Zombie Deer Disease", leaves the animals drooling, lethargic and ultimately dead. It's caused by prions–misfolding and replicating proteins that turn brains into sponges-and like Mad Cow Disease before it, it may spread to humans.



Wolves are our friends. They apparently will identify and kill animals suffering from it without spreading the disease.

https://boingboing.net/2023/12/25/zombie-deer-disease-may-spread-to-humans-scientists-warn.html

Oh deer! This is a no brainer.

A medical case report suggests that a deadly prion disease may have made its way from deer into humans.

Two hunters have died after consuming venison from a population of deer known to be infected with chronic wasting disease – an incurable, fatal prion sometimes known as "zombie deer" disease not dissimilar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

A team of doctors at the University of Texas report a 72-year-old man died after presenting with rapid-onset confusion and aggression.
The man's friend, who was a member of the same hunting lodge, died at a later, unspecified date after presenting with similar symptoms, the doctors note. A post-mortem determined that this second patient had died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, AKA prion disease.

Since prion disease is relatively rare in humans, the two cases could mean that chronic wasting disease – described by the Center for Disease Control as never having been reported in humans – has made the zoonotic leap from animals.

Prion diseases, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD in humans, are kind of terrifying. Prions are proteins that haven't folded properly, and therefore don't really function the way they should. The problem is that these misfolded proteins teach the proteins around them how to fold badly, too, resulting in a spread of dysfunctional tissue that cannot be halted or cured.

https://www.sciencealert.com/zombie-deer-disease-zoonotic-transfer-suspected-after-two-human-deaths

 

[maximus otter]

Oh deer! This is a no brainer.

A medical case report suggests that a deadly prion disease may have made its way from deer into humans.

Two hunters have died after consuming venison from a population of deer known to be infected with chronic wasting disease – an incurable, fatal prion sometimes known as "zombie deer" disease not dissimilar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

A team of doctors at the University of Texas report a 72-year-old man died after presenting with rapid-onset confusion and aggression.
The man's friend, who was a member of the same hunting lodge, died at a later, unspecified date after presenting with similar symptoms, the doctors note. A post-mortem determined that this second patient had died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, AKA prion disease.

Since prion disease is relatively rare in humans, the two cases could mean that chronic wasting disease – described by the Center for Disease Control as never having been reported in humans – has made the zoonotic leap from animals.

Prion diseases, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD in humans, are kind of terrifying. Prions are proteins that haven't folded properly, and therefore don't really function the way they should. The problem is that these misfolded proteins teach the proteins around them how to fold badly, too, resulting in a spread of dysfunctional tissue that cannot be halted or cured.

https://www.sciencealert.com/zombie-deer-disease-zoonotic-transfer-suspected-after-two-human-deaths

“Bottom Line: Not Much News Here​

The study’s objective reads: “This study presents a cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) cases after exposure to chronic wasting disease (CWD)-infected deer, suggestive of potential prion transmission from CWD-infected deer to humans.”

The “cluster,” from what I understand, is two people. And the study is based on an unnamed 72-year-old man who had a “history of consuming meat from a CWD-infected deer population… His friend, who had also eaten venison from the same deer population, recently died of CJD, raising concerns about a potential link between CWD and human prion disease.”

The point is, the study does not establish that the men ate infected venison or not. Maybe the researchers know beyond a doubt that they had their venison tested, that it came back positive, and they ate it anyway—but if they did, wouldn’t the study say so?

The findings also makes it clear that “Due to the challenge of distinguishing sCJDMM1 from CWD without detailed prion protein characterization, it is not possible to definitively rule out CWD in these cases.” Well, just because they can’t rule out CWD certainly doesn’t make CWD the culprit.”

https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/study-cwd-fatal-human-disease-link/

a) Two people is not a cluster.

b) The whole thing sounds very post hoc ergo propter hoc.

c) There is no Chronic Wasting Disease in the UK.

d) People who pee their pants over every report of a new disease will undoubtedly moisten their gussets over this.

d) I’ll still be enjoying delicious, free, free-range venison long after they’ve fretted themselves into an early grave.

maximus otter

 

[Mythopoeika]

d) I’ll still be enjoying delicious, free, free-range venison long after they’ve fretted themselves into an early grave.

Yep, unless someone in power gets all hysterical about it and stops us doing that.

 

[ramonmercado]

Yep, unless someone in power gets all hysterical about it and stops us doing that.

That would be hartless, it would stop stag nights.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Surprisingly few Zombie Watches out there: