Canadian scientists are worried about a disease called chronic wasting disease (CWD), also known as “zombie deer disease,” spreading to humans. Lethal infection a deadly neurological condition, which hardly leaves any animal to live . The invading virus to the wild deer populations in the US is expanding at a speedy rate. And the affected deer are left drooling, stumbling, lethargic and with a blank stare. This disease is linked to the decline of the local deer and elk populations. Prion-related protein diseases are fatal and are caused by protein misfolding. As a Guardian report has it, scientists are now afraid that these diseases may change and soon affect human beings.
Testing on any deer, elk, moose or caribou that were road-killed amidst travel has been ordered by Canadian authorities in a bid to combat the disease. Once infected, the period of manifestation is one year and the infection allowed symptoms like drastic weight loss, frothing of mouth, the lack of fear of humans, being lazy and clumsy, excessive thirst or urination.
Two cases of the disease have been observed in a mule deer in January and in a white-tailed deer few weeks later in B.C. Canada. A week ago exactly we got this case from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, US. According to the scientists, CWD occurs in the primates too, monkeys and chimpanzees. “WHO has recommended that prion agents of all known prion diseases should not be a part of the human food chain that has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 1997” the phrase written by the CDC.
Human lymphatic filariasis, according to scientists, might be transmitted through the exchange of various bodily fluids. Transmissions may also occur in an indirect manner wherein the soil, food or water may become contaminated. According to the CDC statement, the disease is incurable and there is no vaccine. But it also makes it even more dangerous, because the prions may sometimes remain in an infected deer or elk after they have died, and therefore, the animals can catch the infection from the contaminated environment.
