I am an RN and worked on a medical neurology unit in Chicago in the early 1980s. I took care of a patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome, caused by prions. This microorganism was understood to be so transmissable that even a piece of one could cause this horrific disease that always results in death. Word was many pathologists would not autopsy patients who died of it, since they were concerned they could get it from the body.
We need substantially better protection for workers that do research and for those who provide direct care to these unfortunate people. Otherwise, we should stop handling these bodies and cremate them for the public good.
