| http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,2044923^1702,00.html
Authorities investigate human mad cow case From AFP in Paris 27may01 AUTHORITIES are investigating a possible case of the human variant of mad cow disease in the French West Indian island of Guadeloupe, the health ministry in Paris said late today. "Additional examinations are under way and it is not at this stage possible to make a definitive judgment" on whether the patient was suffering from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the ministry said in a statement. The disease is a fatal brain-wasting illness thought to be transmitted through the consumption of meat from cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease. Tests on two other patients on the island with a neurological illness did not conclusively indicate they were suffering from the human form of mad cow disease. The head of France's food authority in Guadeloupe, Jean-Luc Grangeon, told AFP that a probe had been opened into whether infected meat or animal meal made from ground-up animal carcasses had been imported into the island from Britain. Health ministry officials have refused to identify the patients or indicate where they are being treated, saying they lacked authority from the families. French radio said today that two people suspected of having CJD were admitted to the University Hospital in Guadeloupe's main city Pointe-a-Pitre, and that a third patient was on the French-Dutch island of St Martin. The ministry drew a distinction between "classic" cases of CJD, a pathology that strikes about 80 people per year in mainland France, and variant vCJD. In 1997, one person died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Guadeloupe, but a study published in the British medical journal Lancet showed that the death had nothing to do with tainted meat, the ministry said.In mainland France, three people have died from vCJD so far. |
