NH hospital calls 8 over brain disease chances  Eight patients
who may have been exposed to a fatal brain disease at a New
Hampshire hospital have been contacted by the hospital's
president, who said Thursday the patients aren't panicking.  Dr.
Joseph Pepe called the Catholic Medical Center patients a day
after health officials announced that they may have been exposed
to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - a brain disease characterized by
rapidly progressive dementia which can cause death within months
after symptoms first appearing. It has no treatment or cure.
Officials believe the extremely rare disease caused the August
death of a patient who had brain surgery at the hospital in May,
although the cause of death won't be certain until more tests
are completed. If that patient had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,
there's a remote chance it was transmitted to other brain
surgery patients because the abnormal proteins that cause the
disease can survive standard sterilization practices.  In
addition to the eight Catholic