A rare prion disease killed two hunters in the United States, reports IFLScience. Experts fear that the disease known as zombie deer disease, CWD, may be responsible for the case.
24.hu writes that prions are proteins with a defective structure that can cause dangerous diseases in their host: they cannot be treated and always end in death. It typically threatens the brain, where tiny holes are formed as a result of the prions. As a result, patients may experience a number of physical and mental symptoms, including hallucinations, aggression, depression, confusion, memory loss, and movement and speech difficulties.
CWD has infected hundreds of deer in North America in recent years, and if the death of the two hunters was also caused by this disease, this may be the first case of humans contracting CWD. One of them – a 72-year-old man – started to notice strange symptoms in 2022, he suddenly became confused and aggressive. As it turned out later, they both consumed the meat of a deer that was infected with CWD.
Both men later died, and during their autopsies, a prion disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was discovered in their bodies. Experts believe that it is possible that prions could have passed from the venison into the bodies of the hunters, which later caused the disease.
Tags: hunters died mysterious disease zombie deer disease responsible
