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Environmentally Acquired Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy

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Prions and Diseases

Abstract

From the ritual cannibalism of kuru to the modern “cannibalism” of iatrogenic and variant forms of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, the history of environmentally acquired spongiform encephalopathy is reviewed. Sources, original recognitions, inter-relationships, and distinctive characteristics of the various forms of disease are discussed, credits (and debits) are acknowledged, and failures and victories recalled as the era of acquired CJD draws to a close.

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Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to Drs. M.P. Alpers, R. Bradley, J.P. Brandel, Y. Nakamura, T. Sato, G.A.H. Wells, and R.G. Will for helping to insure the accuracy of incidence data for environmentally-acquired infections, and special thanks go to Dr. Bradley for a critical reading of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Paul Brown M.D. .

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Brown, P. (2013). Environmentally Acquired Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. In: Zou, WQ., Gambetti, P. (eds) Prions and Diseases. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5338-3_5

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