[oh_sigh]

Shouldn't autoclaves destroy all proteins, prion or otherwise? What exactly is the exposure vector?

edit: Unsourced statement from wikipedia[1]: "However, prions, such as those associated with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, may not be destroyed by autoclaving at the typical 134 °C for three minutes or 121 °C for 15 minutes.[citation needed]"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclave

[antisthenes]

In an autoclave, prions can be deactivated by using a temperature of 270 F at 21 psi for 90 minutes. [1]

[1] http://www.bseinfo.org/priondefinition.aspx

[metasean]

> Normal sterilization procedures such as boiling or irradiating materials fail to render prions non-infective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmissible_spongiform_encep... (The quoted sentence is from the paragraph immediately above the TOC block.)

Remember it was the hospital that sent me, and anybody else who had surgery during the same period, a letter saying I may have exposed. While they followed required sterilization procedures, those standards were apparently not enough to statistically ensure prions were destroyed. I'm not sure if they knew what was required in this regard, because one of the things mentioned in the letter was that all related surgical equipment had subsequently been destroyed.