The "zombie deer" virus has been detected in the United States! Can it infect humans?

Dull-eyed, lack of desire to eat and move, lack of basic reflexes when encountering danger...

According to media reports, a "zombie deer" infected with a deadly virus has recently appeared in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. American scientific experts are worried that the next target of this virus is humans.

What's the deal with the "zombie deer" virus? Will it be transmitted from person to person? And how do we respond?

There is no vaccine to prevent the "zombie deer" virus

According to US media reports, recently, a deer carcass in Yellowstone National Park in the United States tested positive for a highly infectious prion. Some scientists have expressed concern that the deadly brain disease virus could be transmitted to humans.

What exactly is prions all about, and why is it called a "zombie deer" virus?

Li Tong, chief physician of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Beijing You'an Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, once said in an interview with China News Service that "Zombie DeerDisease" is officially called Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), and according to the CDC, CWD is a prion disease that affects deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose.

CWD has been found in some regions such as North America, including Canada, the United States, Norway, and South Korea. It can take more than a year for infected animals to develop symptoms, including drastic weight loss (emaciation, wasting), tripping, listlessness, and other neurological symptoms. CWD can affect animals of all ages, but some infected animals may die before they become ill. CWD is fatal to animals and there is currently no treatment or vaccine to prevent it.

The prions, dubbed "zombies," didn't appear out of nowhere. According to the data, the earliest discovery of prions was in 1970, when a sick sheep appeared in some parts of Europe, they were out of balance, and eventually paralyzed and died, and kept rubbing their bodies on the ground and fences, and the bleeding would not stop, so it was called sheep pruritus. At the time, the cause of the disease was not known.

Since 1972, the American neuroscientist Procinari has studied scrapie, named this pathogenic factor "prion", and put forward the "protein conformational pathogenic hypothesis". In 1997, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his advanced predictions and innovative and bold research.

How does the virus spread from animal to animal?

How prions are transmitted from animal to animal is directly related to whether or not we can eat meat with peace of mind.

According to reports, the Public Wildlife Federation of the United States estimated in 2017 that about 7000,15000 to 20,<> animals infected with "zombie deer" disease are eaten each year, and this number is increasing at a rate of <>% per year. With the hunting season upon us, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling for people to test animals they hunt before eating meat.

It is important to note that animal feces, urine, and even body fluids can be used as vectors for the virus, which can even hide in the soil for several years until the next host emerges.

The U.S. government has taken a number of measures to respond to the outbreak, including banning the hunting of diseased deer to prevent the disease from affecting humans; Add disinfectants to the food and water sources of the deer herd to reduce the spread of disease. At the same time, the monitoring of deer herds and the handling of sick and dead deer have been stepped up to avoid the spread of the virus in the environment.

However, in addition to cervids, prions can also be transmitted in a variety of animals.

Li Tong has said that there have been reports of cattle, sheep, cats and other animals infected with the virus. Among them, prions are the most common cause of BSE in cattle, and there is a causal relationship between a new human prion disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (VCJD) first reported in the United Kingdom in 1996.

Can prions infect people?

"In fact, it's possible for us humans to get infected with prions." American scientists have already voiced such concerns in the media. For example, mad cow disease is also a type of prion that has been widely transmitted in humans.

Since 1997, the World Health Organization has advised that it is important to prevent all known prion disease pathogens from entering the human food chain, Li said. At the moment, it seems that the best way to prevent it is to stay away from these animals, especially not to eat animals that may be sick.

In daily life, how do you make sure you don't eat the virus?

Zhang Ye, former director of the Nutrition Department of the Eighth Medical Center of the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, suggested in an interview with China News Service that first of all, do not eat wild animals, which is also a national regulation and should be strictly observed. At the same time, it is necessary to go to formal institutions to buy meat ingredients from formal sources. In addition, special care should be taken to thoroughly cook and cook meat ingredients during the cooking process, because most microorganisms can be inactivated in a high-temperature environment for a long time. It should be noted that high temperatures generally reach more than 120 degrees Celsius, and the duration is recommended to be more than half an hour to more than 40 minutes. (Text/Zhao Bin)