4 ms·
The full section with the Aguzzi quote adds context, including his declining to comment on the French case. > The scientific community has long recognized that
by philshem 5y ago
The full section with the Aguzzi quote adds context, including his declining to comment on the French case.
> The scientific community has long recognized that handling prions is dangerous and an occupational risk for neuropathologists, says neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of the University of Zurich. Aguzzi declined to comment on the French CJD cases, but told Science his lab never handles human or bovine prions for research purposes, only for diagnostics. “We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep prions, which have never been shown to be infectious to humans,” Aguzzi says. In a 2011 paper, his team reported that prions can spread through aerosols, at least in mice, which “may warrant re-thinking on prion biosafety guidelines in research and diagnostic laboratories,” they wrote. Aguzzi says he was “totally shocked” by the finding and introduced safety measures to prevent aerosol spread at his own lab, but the paper drew little attention elsewhere.
- disabled 5y agoWe know that aerosoled brains of animals can cause disease in humans. Take a look at this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_inflammatory_neuropathy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_inflammatory_neu... This disease was discovered due to an alert translator (most likely translating from Spanish to English) recalling that he had seen patients’ records before that had the nearly the same exact history. After investigation, it was discovered the patients worked in a slaughterhouse near the pig brain section, where the brains were being aerosolized. Many ended up developing a progressive inflammatory neuropathy.