A DISEASE that could make you act just like a ZOMBIE!
Zombies have dominated science fiction for years. It have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years with a slew of big money films including the latest phenomenal American Television Series, The Walking Dead. But they don't actually exist, right? WRONG. There is a real-life disease that could make you act like a zombie.
If we're going to talk about zombie-like disease, we first need to decide what the symptoms of being a zombie actually are, That would include traits like rotting or dead flesh, a trace-like state that would rob people of any sign of higher cognitive function, an inability to communicate in anything more than moans and grunts and a slow, shuffling gait.
Around 1990's especially if you lived in the United Kingdom you might remember all the panic about MAD COW DISEASE, a disorder that kills thousands of cattles in the 80's and 90's and because of version of it,can also infect humans, a lot of humans really freak out. Today, thanks to safer farming it probably is anything you need to worry about and even scientist still don't know exactly how it works, we can say one thing is for sure , your steak is almost definitely probably NOT infected.
MAD COW DISEASE
Is technically known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) a disease in cows that leaves their brain looking like a wet sponge.Lesions are characterized by sponge-like changes seen under an ordinary microscope. A progressive neurological disease and affects overtime, it causes severe brain and nervous system damage which eventually leads to trouble standing and walking and changes in mood, like increased aggression and nervousness.
The first 2 cases were identified in the UK. From 1986 through 2001, a British outbreak affects about 180,000 cattle and devastates farming communities.
During the outbreak's peak in January 1993, almost 1000 new cattle were identified each week but the number goes down dramatically since then.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a cause by bizarre self replicating protein called the PRION. Other pathogens like bacteria and viruses use DNA to make a copy of themselves but the PRION is just the deform version of a normal protein found in cell membranes. Sometimes, those proteins can go rogue and get bent out of shape, but right now we don't totally understand how or why it happens. And when those protein become PRIONS they can bind other proteins like them and make them in the same way. And those mess up PRIONS corrupt even more proteins and so on.
Tons of them collect and spread in the brain and nervous system, eventually cause brain damage but that takes a while so symptoms usually don't show up until years later.
The cattle made it worse, after cows died of BSE they were ground up and feed to healthy cows. So the disease keep going.
Unfortunately, a version of a disease infect to human cause by dead PRIONS is called the....
variant CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB'S DISEASE (vCJD)
The rapid evolution of the prion that causes variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease has alarming implications for the study of zombiism. If vCJD becomes easily transmitted from one human to another through casual and/or sexual contact, like HIV, it could spell certain death to massive segments of the global population. And with only minor tweaks in the strain’s composition, a zombie pandemic could be not far behind.
As you can imagine your brain filled with tiny holes will leave you with all signs and symptoms like:
PERSONALITY CHANGES
PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS
LACK OF COORDINATION
As the disease worsen, those symptoms progress to:
INVOLUNTARY JERKING MOVEMENTS
CONFUSION
MEMORY PROBLEMS
PROGRESSING TOO...
SEVERE MENTAL IMPAIRMENT
The victim then losses the ability to move or speak all together once enough holes are present within the brain, the victim DIES
Here are the Case Reports in Psychiatry: A Case of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Presenting as Conversion Disorder
Image Sources:
Sources:
1.CNN (edition)MadCowDisease
2.zombie research society
3.national geographic (MADCOWDISEASE)
4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
5.https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crips/2017/2735329/
Nice knowing ah?
Til Next Time.. Thanks for reading! :-)
I just heard the disease you mentioned in your post, in my place in Indonesia there is a disease that is called the "bird flu" that attacks mammals like chickens and can attack humans when in touch or direct contact with the animal. if humans are infected then almost the same as the disease you mentioned in your post.