- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - There is no evidence to date of the presence of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (nvCJD)--the human version of ``mad cow'' disease--in the United
States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news
- web sites) (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
-
- Then again, ``this is one world. People have traveled
to the United Kingdom.... We are not 100% sure that a case of (nvCJD) will
not arise in the future,'' CDC researcher Dr. Lawrence B. Schonberger told
Reuters Health in an interview.
-
- The CDC analyzed data concerning all cases of CJD that
were diagnosed between 1979 and 1998 in the United States. During that
time there were 4,751 deaths due to the disease, according to the report
published in the November 8th issue of The Journal of the American Medical
Association (news - web sites).
-
- This particular strain found in the US is an older strain
of CJD and is not transmitted by eating beef as is suspected in the 'variant'
CJD form that emerged in Britain in the 1990s.
-
- ``Although these illness have the same name, they are
different diseases,'' Schonberger explained.
-
- One difference that the CDC report identifies is that
the average age of those infected in the US is 68 years, while in the UK
the average age of infection is 27 years. And autopsies of the brains of
those who have died reveal different types of lesions, suggesting a different
mode of action between the two illnesses.
-
- Both forms of CJD result in the formation of plaques
that build up in the brain, resulting in loss of brain function and death.
While the disease is not transmittable like a cold virus or a sexually
transmitted disease, the US has asked people who spent more than 6 months
in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 to refrain from donating blood,
Schonberger noted.
-
- SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association
2000;284:2322-
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