New Form Of Variant CJD Discovered In England After 2000 Death Of 39-Year-Old Woman

[hatrack]

A NEW wave of deaths from the human form of "mad cow" disease is feared after scientists found a type of variant CJD never seen before. Tests on the brain of a 39-year-old woman killed by vCJD, the human form of BSE, have aroused concern that the rate of deaths caused by the disease is set to escalate again.

Scientists who examined the brain found unusual patterns of damage, while the woman also had a distinct genetic make-up associated with her illness which was not shared by other victims. The worrying discovery suggests the woman might be the first of a new group of people succumbing to vCJD after eating infected beef in the 1980s. Investigations are at an early stage and neurologists are being urged to look out for other cases of the disease to see if a pattern develops.

Dr Simon Mead, of the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit at University College London, which examined the woman's brain, said: "The final conclusion remains open. "It is waving the flag for neurologists to watch for other cases."

More than 160 people are thought to have been killed by vCJD since it was first recognised in 1995. Research shows rates of the incurable disease are more than one-third higher in Yorkshire than in the South.

EDIT

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/New-wave-of-human-mad.3636376.jp

[MADem]

1. Ewwwwww. That ain't good. I wasn't in Yorkshire at the time, but I was in

country off and on during that and the next decade.

[kestrel91316]

2. I lost a British client to early onset, rapidly-progressive dementia a couple of

years ago. He was 60 at the oldest. He had traveled to his home country around the time of the Mad Cow problem and probably ate a good deal of infected beef.

You'll have a hard time convincing me he DIDN'T die of CJD/Mad Cow.