By David Goodman Associated
Press Writer
 WINDSOR,
Ontario –– The chief trauma hospital in this Canadian
border city will keep its operating rooms closed at least through
Friday after possible infection with a rare brain-wasting illness.
Surgeons at
Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital operated March 11 on a woman who later
tested positive for possible infection with Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease.
The disease,
known as CJD, is extremely rare and usually fatal, hospital neurosurgeon
Dr. Srinivas Chakravarthi said Thursday. CJD occurs worldwide,
typically in those over the age of 50, with about one case per
million people each year.
A variant
of the disease has been linked directly to eating meat from cattle
infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as mad cow
disease. Nearly 100 people in Europe have died of new variant
CJD since 1995.
Chakravarthi
said he learned of the test result, which is about 85 percent
accurate, on Monday. As a precaution, the hospital halted all
surgery and began disinfecting its operating rooms and surgical
equipment Tuesday.
Patients who
have had neurosurgery at the hospital since March were being contacted,
said chief executive Frank Bagatto.
However, "the
odds of anyone getting this particular disease is almost close
to zero," Chakravarthi said at a news conference.
One good sign
is that the woman who tested positive seems to be doing well,
which could indicate the test is a false positive, the surgeon
said.
Meanwhile,
Ontario's health minister warned Thursday that patients may have
been exposed to the disease at Windsor Regional Hospital because
of shared medical instruments.
Hotel-Dieu
frequently shares medical equipment with other hospitals but seldom
shares neurological equipment, Chakravarthi said. He did not say
if there had been any such sharing since March 11.
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