Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's are not contagious

Despite concerns that faulty brain proteins can be passed from one person to another during treatment, a new US study shows non-infectious Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, according to Reuters.

Dr. John Trojanowski from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA) and colleagues looked at data on 6,190 people with developmental problems from an early age.

From 1963 to 1985, these subjects were injected with growth hormone from the corpse.

To determine the likelihood of these corpses getting brain diseases, they examined the brain tissue of 34 donated corpses.

They found 10 people without brain disease, 9 people with Alzheimer's disease, 3 people with Parkinson's disease, 4 people with both diseases and the rest suffering from other brain diseases.

In the group of children receiving growth hormone, there were 796 deaths before 2008.

The team found that, among those who died, none had Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. This means that the two diseases are not contagious, according to a report published in JAMA Neurology.

Previous animal studies have led scientists to worry that people with corneal transplants, organ transplants, blood transfusions or specialized operations involving the brains of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients may infected with these two diseases.