- JEDDAH -- A sixty-five-year-old
Saudi man from Madinah who was admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital
in Jeddah on Jan. 19 is suspected of having variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
(CJD), the human form of mad cow disease, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported
yesterday. If confirmed it would be the first case of variant CJD in the
Kingdom.
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- "After conducting a series of tests, the hospital
told us on Jan. 31 that my father is suffering from spongiform encephalopathy,"
the daily quoted the man's son as saying. Hospital record say that the
symptoms of Abdul Karim, who is now in a coma, were "suggestive"
of CJD.
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- The family say that the man showed symptoms of the fatal
disease about three months ago in the beginning of Ramadan. "He started
to lose his memory and found difficulty to understand things and to talk,"
the son told the Arabic daily.
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- The patient was taken to a number of hospitals and clinics
in Madinah. "In the beginning doctors thought that he had had a stroke
and the treatment was given on that basis," he said.
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- Later the man's condition deteriorated and he spent 40
days in a hospital in Madinah but showed no signs of recovery. He was also
given treatment against malaria and typhoid.
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- "We had sent results of medical tests to a number
hospitals. Finally, the King Faisal Hospital agreed to take him,"
the son said.
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- How the man contracted the disease is still a mystery.
He visited Britain in 1996 for some months.
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- "He told us that he had not eaten beef while in
Britain," the son said. "Possibly somebody in the market might
had cheated him by giving beef instead of mutton," he added.
-
- The family has already spent a huge amount of money on
the man's treatment. However, they are not convinced of the hospital's
diagnosis and they are planning to take him abroad for more specialized
treatment.
-
- The Vienna University Hospital has agreed to treat him.
"We are expecting a call from the hospital," the son said. The
overall costs for a four-week stay at the hospital including all diagnostic
and therapeutic interventions would be 120,000euros.
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- According to the man's son, there were at least seven
CJD cases in Jeddah. However, Dr. Adnan Al-Bar, director of health in the
Makkah region, did not confirm or deny the report, the paper said.
-
- Classic CJD has been known about for over 80 years, but
the causes are unknown. It is possible that is may be inherited or spread
through infected surgical equipment. There is no cure and the disease is
fatal. Variant CJD is believed to be linked to the consumption of BSE-infected
beef.
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- Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
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- http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=39161&d=7&m=2&y=2004
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