Alzheimer’s disease may be transmissible, some experts say—but only in rare, unusual circumstances. Here’s how
A new paper from U.K. researchers makes what is, to most, a startling assertion: Alzheimer’s disease can apparently be transmitted, in extremely rare and limited circumstances.
Five people—now middle-aged adults—appear to have contracted the disease from medical procedures in the late 1950s through mid-1980s. The growth-hormone deficient individuals, then children, received donor hormone from cadavers whose brains apparently contained infectious, misfolded proteins that lead to often-fatal neurodegenerative disease.
