I read through the original story and I just don’t understand it.
How on earth could 53 patients be threatened with this disease from contaminated surgical instruments?
Are they implying that this hospital would use the same surgical instruments on 54 patients in a row, without ever sterilizing them? Surely sterilization of all surgical instruments has been a routine measure in all American hospitals for at least the past 100 years.
“Sterilization does not, however, remove prions.”
Wiki, teaches me something new all the time.
I posted a little more info at #10.
Also from a Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee) article:
“Prions are particularly hardy infectious agents and are difficult to destroy. Therefore, the standard viral and bacterial procedures for disinfection are not necessarily strong enough for prions.”
FWIW, people are still dying from the human equivalent of mad cow disease in Britain. That made all sorts of news years ago, Now it isn’t newsworthy. It hasn’t stopped.