5 ms·
> Bleach works as surface decontamination agent. They know it works for CWD, and I expect it works for others too. I remember reading that nothing but incinera
by fao_ 5y ago
> Bleach works as surface decontamination agent. They know it works for CWD, and I expect it works for others too.
I remember reading that nothing but incineration would work in the context of Food-and-Mouth disease, but it seems modern techniques in brain surgery do use bleach. Interesting.
Essentially, the only thing that works is disintegrating the prions. You can't wash them off, since you're simply washing them into the water cycle. You can't deal with them in a way that preserves other biological matter, since they are proteins, disintegrating them means disintegrating any other proteins in that area.
- markdown 5y agoFoot
- sokoloff 5y agoFor brain surgery, it seems like washing them off the implements and into the water cycle is still an enormous win in terms of risk.
- fao_ 5y agoI'm not sure you understand how irresponsible that is.
- sokoloff 5y agoThat might be. I'm not an expert. Is it more irresponsible than not removing them prior to operating on someone's brain?
- fao_ 5y agoYou're acting like those are the only two options available, though. That's not the case.
- NoSorryCannot 5y agoDo you understand how irresponsible it is? It might be but it's obvious. How common are prions? How many prions get into the water cycle already? Prions probably don't go through the water cycle's gas phase. Are we worried about seafood? Surely lots of prions end up in oceans and lakes already. It sounds a bit scary but it's not clear that it would change the risk profile.
- ben_w 5y agoFoot-and-Mouth disease has a vaccine. I believe burning was for economic reasons: vaccination is expensive; the reproductive cycle (and by extension the population) is essentially human-controlled and the livestock population can recover quickly; and "we don't need to vaccinate" increases livestock sales.
- iamthepieman 5y agoI'm missing the reference to foot and mouth disease. FMD is a viral infection and is not caused by prions.
- fao_ 5y agoIIRC at the time the BSE outbreak in the UK[1] was referred to as "foot and mouth disease" and I've heard people refer to it as that since then. I wasn't even aware they were separate things. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak
- shkkmo 5y agoThere may have been some innacurate reporting, but FMD and BSE present very differently in humans so I doubt there was deep confusion.