Blood transfusions in the UK have led to the death of three people from vCJD, who later went on to develop the disease, with a global case of 200 patients reported to be suffering from the disease – of which, 164 were in the UK alone!
But, now, fighting the human form of mad cow disease seems to be possible! Scientists have discovered a way to remove disease-causing proteins from infected animal blood! Hopefully, this filtering technique could one day be used to treat human blood.
According to a report in the Lancet, the UK and US researchers have identified a molecule that is capable of removing the prion proteins from blood infected with scrapie.
The fatal neurodegenerative diseases like the mad cow disease – bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the prion diseases, the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), occur after years of incubation with no apparent symptoms! Hope this new technique, one day can help cure the world of cases like vCJD.