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CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE EXPLAINED
by Debbie Oney
September 28, 1998
Children can be affected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("CJD"). They
may have received blood products which were withdrawn from the market due
to possible CJD risk and their parents may have received withdrawal
notifications. Or they may lose family members to the disease. Student-athletes
need to be warned about the dangers of black market cadaver-derived growth
hormones which put them at risk for CJD.
CJD is an infectious, rapidly progressive fatal brain-deteriorating
disease. One strain, nvCJD, is linked to Mad Cow Disease in England. We have
classical CJD in the United States and throughout the world. In one Yale
University study of Alzheimer patients, 13% -- when autopsied -- were found
to be have CJD. The cause of most cases of CJD is unknown. The incubation
period can be decades.
CJD should be considered whenever a person develops a rapid dementia
and involuntary, irregular jerking movements. Initial symptoms are often
psychological, visual and coordination problems. The person usually dies
within a year of showing symptoms.
It is not known if CJD is spread to humans by blood. The infectious
agent has been found in blood, but there have been no documented cases of
people getting CJD through blood products. Blood products are present in
many vaccines such as the measles-mumps-rubella and allergy vaccines, in In
Vitro Fertilization cultures, and in medical test fluids. As a precaution,
blood relatives of CJD victims and people who are at risk for CJD due to
past medical procedures should not donate blood. The Centers for Disease
Control is conducting a study to determine if CJD can be transmitted to
humans by blood. Until September 1998, blood products were withdrawn from
the market if a donar died of CJD or was at risk for the disease.
The CJD Voice website has a great deal of information on the
disease. It is located at http://members.aol.com/larmstr853/cjdvoice/cjdvoice.htm.
CJD Voice is an e-mail discussion support group.
Blood Recall/Withdrawal - CJD is an e-mail group for people who have
received blood recall/withdrawal notifications. The website is at http://members.aol.com/debbieoney/blood.htm.
Biographical Sketch: Debbie Oney has a Masters degree in
Social Work, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, 1974 MM (Master in
Management) with specializations in Hospital and Health Service Management
and in Finance, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern
University, Chicago, Illinois, 1981.
Debbie Oney writes the above article in the following capacity:
as Director of Public Awareness, CJD Voice Discussion/Support Group Cofounder,
Blood Recall/Withdrawal - CJD Discussion/Support Group.
KIDS AND VIOLENCE
September 7, 1997
First of all, let me list the rating codes for television programming:
TVY for all children
TVY7 for older children
TVG and TVPG for general audiences, and
TV14 and TVMA for adults
There is also a new set of content descriptors that alert viewers
to sex, violence and crude or course language and dialogue: S, V, L and D.
These descriptors, used along with the V-chip (a television filtering
system that will be available on televisions in the next year or so, and as
separate attachments even sooner) will help parents screen out violent
programming from their youngsters' viewing abilities.
In my June 1998 issue of the American Psychological Association
Monitor I found an article that describes one piece of research about
TV violence and how it affects children. This research analyzed some 9,000
hours of TV programs (shown between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. over 23
channels, including broadcast networks, independent broadcasters, public
broadcasters and basic and premium cable channels). Here are some of the
findings:
"Good" characters or heroes -- supposedly attractive role models
that children often mimic -- commit nearly 40 percent of the violent acts.
More than one-third of the programs featured bad characters who
weren't punished and their physical aggression was condoned.
More than 70 percent of the aggressors showed no remorse for their
violence and they weren't criticized or penalized for their violent
behavior.
Roughly half of TV violence shows no physical injury nor shows
pain and suffering. The programs seldom show any long-term suffering of the
victim and the negative impact on the family and community.
The research was co-directed by psychologist Edward Donnerstein,
PhD. He is the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California --
Santa Barbara. He was joined by researchers at the Universities of
California - Santa Barbara, Texas - Austin, North Carolina - Chapel Hill
and Wisconsin - Madison.
The researchers' main concern is that aggressors in TV programs
often use violence to handle problems. They aren't punished and their
victims appear unharmed. We already know that this blend teaches aggression
to children. Unless our youngsters see the impact immediately after the
violent act, they don't understand the consequences.
Another psychologist, Dale Kunkel, PhD, a senior researcher on the
study and associate professor in the department of communications at Santa
Barbara, says that shows need to present violence as unattractive and
repulsive. Shows need to make aggressors outcasts -- not heroes.
I believe that parents need to know what their children are
watching. Some of these programs are just plain ugly and children have no
business watching them!
We may be a long way from developing a fool-proof rating system and
a mechanism that locks out violent programming, but parents still have the
right to set limits on what their children can and can't watch. Setting
those limits may also include taking television sets out of children's
bedrooms.
Email: rein@starnetinc.com
