Rare Disease Closes Canada Hospital By David Goodman
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 10, 2001; 10:28 p.m. EDTWINDSOR, Ontario –– The chief trauma
hospital in this Canadian border city will keep its operating rooms closed at
least through Friday after possible infection with a rare brain-wasting
illness. Surgeons at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital operated March 11 on a woman
who later tested positive for possible infection with Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease. The disease, known as CJD, is extremely rare and usually fatal,
hospital neurosurgeon Dr. Srinivas Chakravarthi said Thursday. CJD occurs
worldwide, typically in those over the age of 50, with about one case per
million people each year. A variant of the disease has been linked directly
to eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy,
known as mad cow disease. Nearly 100 people in Europe have died of new
variant CJD since 1995. Chakravarthi said he learned of the test result,
which is about 85 percent accurate, on Monday. As a precaution, the hospital
halted all surgery and began disinfecting its operating rooms and surgical
equipment Tuesday. Patients who have had neurosurgery at the hospital since
March were being contacted, said chief executive Frank Bagatto. However, "the
odds of anyone getting this particular disease is almost close to zero,"
Chakravarthi said at a news conference. One good sign is that the woman who
tested positive seems to be doing well, which could indicate the test is a
false positive, the surgeon said. Meanwhile, Ontario's health minister warned
Thursday that patients may have been exposed to the disease at Windsor
Regional Hospital because of shared medical instruments. Hotel-Dieu
frequently shares medical equipment with other hospitals but seldom shares
neurological equipment, Chakravarthi said. He did not say if there had been
any such sharing since March 11. ––– On the Net:
http://www.cjdfoundation.org
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