FW:Mad cow disease claims first victim in Hong Kong

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http://sg.news./reuters/asia-90715.html

 

Thursday February 21, 5:41 PM

 

Mad cow disease claims first victim in Hong Kong

 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's only known victim of

the human form of mad cow disease has died, health

officials said on Thursday.

 

The 35-year-old woman, identified only as Chan, died

on Wednesday morning after fighting the brain-wasting

disease for 16 months, the Hong Kong Hospital

Authority told Reuters.

 

Doctors believed the victim contracted the illness,

known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD),

when she lived in Britain from 1985 to 1992 and again

from 1997 to 2001.

 

The victim returned to Hong Kong for medical treatment

in January 2001.

 

In Europe, vCJD has killed about 100 people, mostly in

Britain.

 

New variant CJD differs from the classic form of CJD

in its early psychiatric symptoms and prevalence among

young victims.

 

The disease is thought to be caused by eating beef

from cattle infected with bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE).

 

Twenty people in Hong Kong have been diagnosed as

having the classic form of CJD since 1996.

 

2002 Reuters Limited.

 

 

 

 

 

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