Letter: Risks of transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Your report on victims of the growth hormone manufactured from organs infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease raises further questions about this 'rare' disease. Even if the mortuary technicians had been issued with guidelines not to remove pituitary glands from corpses marked as dead from CJD, this would have been no guarantee of safety.
While the medical profession may take seriously possible symptoms among younger persons, this may not be the case among the aged. Similar symptoms may be passsed over as 'inevitable ageing' or incorrectly diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease, as was the case of my mother. By 1990, at the age of 72, she showed unexpected physical and mental deterioration, clear to friends and relatives.
It was only by mid-1991 that the professionals recognised, at our insistence, that the problems were more than bladder control. After her death, in 1992, my sister and I insisted on sending her brain tissue to a university research unit. Contrary to her death certificate, still not corrected, CJD was diagnosed.
How many others are dying of CJD without being recorded?
Yours faithfully,
JUDITH OKELY
(reader in social anthropology)
Edinburgh
17 August
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments