{"id":1609,"date":"2024-06-03T14:00:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2024-06-04T13:48:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T13:48:35","slug":"zombies-dont-exist-not-even-in-the-animal-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/en\/blog\/zombies-dont-exist-not-even-in-the-animal-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Zombies don\u2019t exist \u2014 not even in the animal kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nume\u00adrous head\u00adlines last month featured the term \u2018zombie deer\u2019. What was it actually about?<\/p>\n

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been observed in deer and elk since the 1960s, parti\u00adcu\u00adlarly in the USA. This prion disease is similar to mad cow disease (BSE) and Creutz\u00adfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Affected animals lose their shyness towards humans, show coor\u00addi\u00adna\u00adtion disor\u00adders, heavy sali\u00adva\u00adtion and rapid weight loss. These symptoms have led to the media often refer\u00adring to the affected animals as \u2018zombie deer\u2019.<\/p>\n

An inci\u00addent in 2022, published in Neuro\u00adlogy<\/a> in April this year, reig\u00adnited the debate about the possible trans\u00admis\u00adsion of CWD to humans: a 72-year-old hunter showed rapidly progres\u00adsive confu\u00adsion and aggres\u00adsion after eating meat from infected deer. A friend who had also eaten this meat had died of CJD shortly before. Despite inten\u00adsive treat\u00adment, the hunter died and post-mortem exami\u00adna\u00adtions confirmed sporadic CJD.<\/p>\n

Scien\u00adtists have now commented on the latest death in the USA that although the diagnosis of Creutz\u00adfeldt-Jakob disease was confirmed post-mortem, the prion proteins were so similar that CWD could not be ruled out. The German Fried\u00adrich L\u00f6ffler Insti\u00adtute (FLI) considers the theory that the hunters contracted CWD to be not only unproven, but also rather implau\u00adsible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So the idea that we are actually threa\u00adtened by zombies (even if only in deer form) is fort\u00adu\u00adna\u00adtely a horror film fantasy induced by head\u00adlines at best. Inci\u00adden\u00adtally, there is a recent publi\u00adca\u00adtion in Science on the topic of the conse\u00adquences of \u2018click\u00adbai\u00adting\u2019 head\u00adlines in social media:<\/p>\n

Allen, Jennifer et al. Quan\u00adti\u00adfying the impact of misin\u00adfor\u00adma\u00adtion and vaccine-skep\u00adtical content on Face\u00adbook. Science vol. 384,6699 (2024) DOI: 10.1126\/science.adk3451<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nume\u00adrous head\u00adlines last month featured the term \u2018zombie deer\u2019. What was it actually about? Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been observed in deer and elk since the 1960s, parti\u00adcu\u00adlarly in the USA. This prion disease is similar to mad cow disease (BSE) and Creut\u00adz\u00ad\u00adfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Affected animals lose their shyness towards humans, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en"],"yoast_head":"\nZombies don't exist - not even in the animal kingdom • PK Pharmakommunikation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pk-pharmakommunikation.de\/en\/blog\/zombies-dont-exist-not-even-in-the-animal-kingdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zombies don't exist - not even in the animal kingdom • PK Pharmakommunikation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nume\u00adrous head\u00adlines last month featured the term \u2018zombie deer\u2019. What was it actually about? Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been observed in deer and elk since the 1960s, parti\u00adcu\u00adlarly in the USA. This prion disease is similar to mad cow disease (BSE) and Creutz\u00adfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. 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