"Neurosurgeons were more likely to die of Alzheimer disease, other nonneoplastic nonvascular nervous system disease, leukemia, and aircraft accidents, when compared with the general population."
That looks like persons exposed to the brains of patients may be catching something.
What if it was a germ? How would one go about finding it? Where would one find the non-infected population with which to compare? It may be a combination of a germ and genetics and that germ may be pervasive in our environment, but that doesn't mean the germ cannot be isolated or even eradicated. So it is worth investigation. We may need to find people (monks?) who have lived without exposure to people with dementia, an interesting anthropological problem imho.
Not a crazy thoery, one of the complications of measles is a fatal encephalitis that occurs 5-20 years later.
Be nice if they figured it out, Alzheimer's Disease means years of suck quality of life for everyone.
The link between viruses and some cancers already points to some scary realities. Perhaps the kids shouldnt visit grandma in hospital. Imagine being a kid with cancer when your classmates learn that they might catch cancer from you? It could be like the early days of the AIDS panic again.