Man dies after consuming squirrels from severe infection

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Man died after eating Squirrel Brain

In the US, a man died from a very rare disease after eating squirrels. By eating the animals, the 61-year-old had apparently been infected with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a fatal and untreatable brain disease.

Patient lost contact with reality

According to the news site "Live Science," one man in the United States died of a very rare disease after eating squirrels' brains. According to the report, the 61-year-old was taken to a hospital in Rochester, New York, in 2015, after his thinking had faltered, he lost touch with reality and could no longer work independently. The clinic's doctors found that the patient was suffering from a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

In the US, one man has died from extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The 61-year-old was probably infected by the consumption of squirrels. (Image: Vojtech Herout / fotolia.com)

Human variant of mad cow disease

According to Live Science, an MRI scan of the man's head revealed that the patient's brain looked similar to that seen in humans with the relatively new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a deadly brain disease.

According to reports, only a few hundred cases of vCJD have been reported worldwide, most of them in the 1980s and 1990s following the consumption of contaminated beef in the UK.

"The Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is considered a human variant of the so-called" mad cow disease "(BSE) and occurs in humans both as a" sporadic "form (without clear cause), as hereditary but also acquired as an infection form," explains the German Alzheimer Society e. V. on their website.

"Accordingly, tissue and body fluids from diseased organisms are considered potentially infectious," it continues.

Patient was hobby hunter

In the case of the Americans, it was probably the consumption of squirrels, which led to the infection. As the deceased's family reported, the 61-year-old happily chased and also ate squirrels' brains.

Like Dr. Tara Chen explained, however, it remained unclear whether the man consumed the entire brain or only meat that was contaminated with parts of the squirrel brain.

The doctor did not treat the patient herself, but exposed the case while writing a report on suspected cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease she had seen in her hospital for the past five years.

Extremely rare disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a disease that affects about one in every one million people worldwide, according to the Live Science report..

It is a "debilitating disease" that progresses rapidly and usually leads to death within a year of diagnosis, Chen said.

There is no treatment or cure.

Nevertheless, a quick diagnosis of CJK is important, otherwise it could possibly lead to infections of other people.

The report therefore highlights the need for physicians to keep the CJD diagnosis in mind.

Also in this country doctors warned of the dangerous disease. (Ad)