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'Mad Cow' Deaths in Humans Rising Annually in the UK

SomaliNet Forum (Archive): Health - Caafimaadka: 'Mad Cow' Deaths in Humans Rising Annually in the UK
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Mulkia

Saturday, August 05, 2000 - 04:48 am
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Deaths in the UK from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)--the human form of ``mad cow'' disease--have risen by one third each year since 1995, and new cases of the disease are climbing at a pace of 23% per year, according to UK health officials.

Seventy-five cases of vCJD had been identified by the UK's National CJD Surveillance Unit as of June 30, 2000. The brain-wasting disease has killed 69 of these people, including 14 who have died just this year. That many people died in all of 1999. Most of the cases occurred in teenagers or young adults, Dr. Robert G. Will and colleagues report in the August 5th issue of The Lancet.

``It is unlikely that these observed trends have occurred by chance,'' co-author Simon N. Cousens told Reuters Health. ``That the number of cases is going up is clearly not good news.''

The rise in vCJD cases in the UK has been linked to the consumption of meat from cattle infected with 'mad cow' disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Last month, Will announced that meat processing methods used in the 1980s may have exposed British children to the deadly infection. In those days, before the 'mad cow' danger was apparent, baby food and school meals contained meat collected from cattle carcasses by high-powered water jets. This meat-collection method may have caused children's food to contain spinal cord tissue, which is highly infectious when the animal has BSE.

According to Will, such a scenario might explain why vCJD disproportionately strikes young people. In contrast, the forms of CJD not related to BSE typically strike older adults. Last month, the UK launched an investigation into a cluster of vCJD deaths in a small area of central England. Of the four people who died, two were teenagers.

In the current report, Will's team writes that they cannot predict how long the current rise in vCJD cases and deaths will continue.

The incubation period between infection and the first symptoms of vCJD can be years, Cousens noted. ``The current rise in cases reflects infections that were occurring many years ago,'' he said. ``There is nothing that anyone can do now to roll back the clock on these infections.''

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