Five people, who underwent surgery at a Cape Cod Hospital this summer, may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after undergoing separate surgeries in another hospital that used the same surgical equipment, CNN reported Friday.
According to a statement issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday, the patients may have been exposed to the disease after undergoing surgeries in a New Hampshire Hospital, wherein the same potentially contaminated medical equipment were used.
The medical equipment had originally been used in an operation with a patient suspected of suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday.
The Department of Health and Human Services stated that the now-deceased patient had undergone neurosurgery at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, adding that basic or average sterilization measures do not easily get rid of the disease-causing proteins called prions or "proteinacious infectious particles."
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health the surgical equipment used at both hospitals was from Medtronic Inc.
Earlier, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced its monitoring of eight patients who are manifesting signs of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
"Our concern is with the health and well-being of the eight patients who may have been exposed to CJD," catholic Medical center's CEO Dr. Joseph Pepe said in a statement. "We will work closely with these families to help them in any way possible, even though the risk of infection is extremely low."
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health stated that the five patients each had spinal cord surgery at Cape Cod Hospital between July and August 2013, and that they have all been notified of the risk in undergoing the surgery. The department added that the risk is very low since the patients underwent spinal cord surgery instead of brain surgery. No danger to hospital staff and members of the public has been identified as well.
As of late, the original patient who was suspected of having the disease is undergoing an autopsy - the only way to confirm the illness and the presence of prions - at the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Catholic Medical Center.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that no cases have been linked to the use of contaminated surgical equipment since 1976.
The World Health organization recommends the use of sodium hydroxide, a caustic chemical, in disinfecting medical equipment, that have been used in patients suspected of having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, instead of sterilization due to heat.
CDC said that the disease strikes fewer than 400 people in a year in the United States, Patients commonly manifest memory loss, cognitive difficulty in its early stages; the disease is said to be "rapidly progressive and always fatal."
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