Patients Exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob
July 13, 2001
Patients in a two hospitals in Denver and New Orleans may have been unintentionally exposed to the brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob, the human form of mad cow disease. Fourteen patients underwent medical procedures where tainted surgical instruments where used. The form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob that the patients may have contracted is degenerative and affects only 6,000 people globally each year. Most patients who develop this disease die within fourteen months of the first sign of symptoms.
While the surgical instruments were sterilized before use, normal sterilization techniques do not kill the organism that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, these two incidents should prompt hospitals to establish a policy for disposal of instruments used in neurological procedures where a Creutzfeldt-Jakob diagnosis is possible.
Six patients at Exempla Hospital in Denver and eight patients at Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans were exposed after undergoing brain biopsies with instruments that had been used on a patient who was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Both hospitals have discontinued use of the instruments involved and are now using disposable, single-use surgical tools.
The typical sterilization process for surgical instruments involves rapid disinfection, boiling, or alcohol. None of these methods is effective on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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