Political Exiles

Goddamit, you know I would. This summary is nightmare fuel, I wish it was just a sci-fi story:

• Prions are misfolded proteins that can cause neurodegenerative diseases like mad cow disease, kuru, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They work by converting normal prion proteins into abnormal, misfolded forms.
• Prion diseases are caused by changes to the prion protein and are uniformly lethal once symptoms appear.
• Prion diseases can be acquired through inheritance, contaminated food/tissues, or contaminated medical equipment despite standard sterilization practices.
• Prions are extremely resistant to degradation and survive high heat, chemicals, radiation, and sterilization methods. Their structure makes them highly durable.
• Prions can remain infectious on stainless steel surfaces for years and are very difficult to fully remove from medical equipment.
• Some evidence suggests neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's may potentially be transmissible via surgical equipment as well.
• The amyloid aggregates involved in these diseases also stick tenaciously to surfaces and survive sterilization like prions.
• If these diseases could be transmitted, it would have major implications given their prevalence compared to prion diseases.
• More extreme sterilization protocols may be needed for equipment used on patients with prion/neurodegenerative diseases.
• Prions demonstrate the remarkable hardiness and infectious potential of certain misfolded protein structures.