The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., and the Manchester Health Department announced eight patients may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal brain disease.
A patient who received neurosurgery at CMC is suspected to have died from sporadic CJD, a form of the disease that occurs spontaneously and has no known cause, which is distinct from variant CJD, also called "mad cow disease."
Eight CMC patients may have been exposed to the disease through neurosurgical equipment because the prion, or infectious organism, that causes sporadic CJD is not eliminated through the standard sterilization process, according to the news release. The hospital has since removed this equipment. An NBC News report said up to five patients in other states may have also been exposed to the disease, which has no treatment or cure, through potentially tainted surgical equipment that was rented.
The risk to the eight patients is "considered extremely low," José Montero, MD, director of public health at DHHS, said in the news release.
The patient suspected of having had CJD is undergoing an autopsy, which is the only way to conclusively diagnose CJD, according to the release.
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