Does Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) turn humans into zombies? No, that's not true: To date, there have been no documented instances of CWD infections in humans. Additionally, scientific research has not provided any evidence to support the notion that any disease can transform humans into zombies.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) which was published by med4uchanel on TikTok on January 3, 2024. Translated from Thai into English by Lead Stories staff, it said:
If people are infected with CWD, they won't know and the disease will keep transmitting and probably turn them into zombies
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Jan 14 14:42:15 2024 UTC)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the CWD prion can infect squirrel monkeys and lab mice that carry some human genes (archived here). Canadian and German scientists are studying the potential transmission of CWD to macaques, genetically closer to humans. Ongoing research is investigating if prion diseases occur more in those at higher risk of contact with CWD-infected deer or elk meat. Due to the delayed onset of symptoms, scientists anticipate several years before determining any risk of CWD to humans.
CWD protein is contagious within deer and elk populations and can spread quickly.
To date, there is no strong evidence for the occurrence of CWD in people, and it is not known if people can get infected with CWD prions. Nevertheless, these experimental studies raise the concern that CWD may pose a risk to people and suggest that it is important to prevent human exposures to CWD.
During a telephone conversation with Lead Stories, the Center for Medical Genomics in Thailand (archived here) confirmed that Chronic Wasting Disease prions have the potential to be transmitted from plants to animals and from animals to animals. However, there is still uncertainty regarding whether the disease can be transmitted to humans. The possibility exists that humans could become infected through the consumption of contaminated meat or direct contact with secretions or infected animals. Despite no reported transmission to humans so far, the center emphasized that these prions can induce transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which have the potential to affect mammals, including humans, leading to fatal outcomes.
