North Carolina: 18 Surgery Patients May Have Been Exposed to Incurable Disease

A medical center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, confirmed that on January 18, an operation was performed on a patient with the symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a serious and incurable neurological disorder. who later tested positive for the illness.  Even though the surgical instruments were sterilized by standard hospital procedures, they should have gone through enhanced sterilization procedures used when there are confirmed or suspected cases of CJD.  This seems like another inexcusable hospital error.

18 may have been exposed to incurable disease
by Val Willingham, CNN, 12 February 2014

· CDC says no one has been known to get CJD from surgical instruments since 1976
· 18 surgery patients getting news: They may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob
· The disease is a serious and incurable neurological disorder
· Hospital says instruments used in a surgery didn't get the approved sterilization

(CNN) -- Doctors and hospital officials from Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are notifying 18 neurosurgery patients that they might have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a serious and incurable neurological disorder.
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