February 11, 2014
Artwork courtesy channelcast.tv
Nearly 20 patients at a North Carolina hospital may have been exposed to a rare and fatal neurological disease while undergoing surgery with surgical equipment that had not been properly sterilized, officials at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center said Monday.
Jeff Lindsay, president of the Winston-Salem hospital, told a news conference that 18 patients may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, an incurable and invariably fatal brain disorder that kills 90 percent of patients within one year.
“While the CDC categorizes such risks as ‘very low,’ any risk of transmission is simply unacceptable,” Lindsay told reporters. “On behalf of the entire team, I apologize to the patients and their families for this anxiety. We are committed to providing support to patients and their families.”
A neurosurgical procedure was done on Jan. 18 on a patient who was later confirmed to have the disease. The other 18 patients, all neurosurgical patients, were exposed to surgical equipment that had been cleaned using a typical sterilization procedures, but not the enhanced sterilization procedures used for Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
Novant vice president for clinical development Dr. Jim Lederer said the operation was performed on a patient that was suspected and later confirmed to have sporadic CJD. While CJD has been associated with mad cow disease, Lederer emphasized this particular strain isn’t mad cow.
There’s no known cure for CJD, which can lead to death in some cases. It could take years if not decades for other symptoms to show up. The disease causes dementia, impaired vision, involuntary movement and coma, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.