Prion Diseases Risks
The cluster centers on discussions about prion diseases like CJD, CWD, and mad cow disease, focusing on their transmission risks, extreme stability, resistance to destruction methods like cooking or autoclaving, and potential human health implications.
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Are prions contagious through contact or only eating?
Yeah if it is a prion disease, it might be transmitted.
prion diseases too??? That's hard to believe.
Are there any implications regarding treatment of prion diseases like CJD, CWD, etc.?
Aren't prions eliminated by cremation?
Yes they do. From wikipedia : Prion aggregates are stable, and this structural stability means that prions are resistant to denaturation by chemical and physical agents: they cannot be destroyed by ordinary disinfection or cooking. This makes disposal and containment of these particles difficult.
I'm not as quick to dismiss the risk. A brief read of the Wikipedia article on prions has some concerning claims:> All known prion diseases in mammals ... are progressive, have no known effective treatment, and are always fatal> In 2015, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that plants can be a vector for prions. When researchers fed hamsters grass that grew on ground where a deer that died with chronic wasting disease (CWD) was buried, t
I'd be worried about prions.
Wait, I thought it was prions. See? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18648043
Prions don't build new prions form smaller parts, like virus do. Prions just change the shape of a complete protein that is already build. But each prion can change the shape of only one type of protein, not any protein that is floating around.I think the risk is almost almost almost zero.