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Autumn 04 index CivAb index previous page Scroll down for items on this page Most people still don't get it Ireland has first home-grown case of vCJD French health officials trying to track recipients of blood from vCJD donor Failure to test for BSE at 55 British slaughterhouses Girl survives rabies without vaccination Most people still don't get it Despite the efforts of the minority of scientists and physicians who speak out publicly, the man in the street, and in this case a journalist, continue to assume that biomedical research conducted on animals is a boon to the human species. Catherine Dell'Orto, a veterinarian employed by Columbia University, was distressed by the horrendous research on baboons conducted by Dr E Sander Connolly. It involves removing the left eye and chunks of bone and the brain's outer coverings in order to clamp off blood vessels in the brain to simulate a stroke. This destructive surgery is performed under anesthesia, but Dell'Orto complained that subsequent pain relief and post surgical care were inadequate. She was told not to go into the area where these experiments were conducted. Unable to secure better conditions and treatment for the baboons as well as other animals at the facility, she complained to People for the Ethical Treatment of animals. PETA sought prosecution. Some improvements were made, but the basic unscientific use of other species to study human conditions went unchallenged. In writing about this situation, New York Newsday reporter Bryn Nelson in the first of a series of articles (September 26) referred to Baboon stroke research as the "climb of biomedicine toward its noble goal of preventing suffering and death for millions of humans." Nelson went on to say that such research has contributed to coronary bypass surgery like that performed on Bill Clinton when research performed on dogs actually retarded this treatment for humans because "a dog's clotting characteristics and coronary valves are so different from ours, the initial humans died": (1) when this surgery was first tried on them. It was the clinical work of France's Dr Kunlin, which had nothing to do with animal experiments, that achieved the first success of bypass surgery. The same is true for all the other achievements Nelson attributed to experimenting on animals. While animal experiments were routinely performed, often after the benefits to humans had already been determined, they did not provide the essential information needed for humans, and, in many cases provided misleading information that delayed human benefits.
Ireland has its first case of home-grown vCJD Ireland (Eire) was able to discount a case of vCJD (variant Creuzfeldt Jakob disease), the human form of BSE ("mad cow"), because the victim had lived several years in England in the 1980's, the period of highest exposure to meat products from infected cows. An earlier case occurred in a woman of 30 who had undergone a gastroscopy in 1999. She, too, had lived in England. The instruments used for her gastric procedure were subsequently used on 49 other patients, but no subsequent infections have been reported. The third and most recent Irish victim, a young man, said to be 20, appears to be Ireland's first indigenous case because he has not lived abroad. Nor has he had surgery, or received or donated blood. His case is officially listed as "probable" because final confirmation requires examination of brain tissue, but the appearance of the brain in an MRI scan and the presence of the infectious prion found in a tonsillar biopsy leave no room for doubt. Ireland has the second highest rate of BSE in the world. ProMED -mail 11 November 2004 British testing for BSE failed at 55 slaughterhouses The British Meat Hygiene Service has announced that 261 sick or injured animals were not tested for BSE between January and October. BBC News October 11, 2004 French health officials trying to track down recipients of blood donated by person infected with vCJD For the second time in a month, a French blood donor has been diagnosed with variant Creuzfeldt Jakob disease, the human form of "mad cow" disease, attributed to eating parts of infected cows. Health officials are trying to track down all the recipients of blood from this donor. This person is France's ninth vCJD victim and had donated blood several times between 1984 and 2002. Turkish Press 23 November,2004 British testing for BSE failed at 55 slaughterhouses The British Meat Hygiene Service has announced that 261 sick or injured animals were not tested for BSE between January and October. BBC News October 11, 2004 Girl survives rabies without vaccination A 15-year-old Wisconsin girl is the first person known to survive rabies without being vaccinated against the disease. Only five other people are known to have survived. All had received the vaccine as a precautionary measure before the symptoms emerged, however. Jeanna Giese was bitten by a bat while sitting in church on September 12. Her symptoms appeared a month later, too late for vaccine to be effective. In desperation, with the permission of her parents, doctors led by pediatric disease specialist, Rodney Willoughby, MD, simultaneously used two anesthetic drugs to keep her in a coma and two antiviral drugs to combat the infection. With the full extent of her recovery still unknown, she is expected to be released from the hospital by Christmas. AP reports November 24, 2004 This treatment cannot be considered a cure until it is repeated on at least one more victim, but it has the potential to save hundreds of lives in third world countries every year. The case is reminiscent of how penicillin became a valuable drug after it was used in desperation to save a dying man for whom there was no hope. Animal experiments were not a factor in either discovery. |
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The Civil Abolitionist Autumn 2004 v.15 no. 2 Due to inadequate funds, this is the final paper issue . Web page will continue to be updated at irregular intervals however. |