Third Human U.S. Mad Cow Case Reported

Posted on December 11, 2006

Reuters reports that the third U.S. case of vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease, has been discovered by the CDC. The victim is a Saudi-born man currently living in Virginia. The CDC says that man has not donated any blood. A total of 200 of the always fatal uncurable disease have been reported worldwide.

The man, whose case was reported to the CDC by the Virginia Department of Health, has variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, or vCJD, the CDC said on its Web site.
This is a carefully diagnosed, brain-destroying illness that scientists believe is caused by eating beef products from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE, or mad cow disease.
"The current patient has no history of donating blood and the public health investigation has identified no risk of transmission to U.S. residents from this patient."

The CDC report about the case says the man temporarily lived in the U.S. in Texas for periods of time from 2001 to 2005. However, they believe he was infected as a child in Saudi Arabia.

The current case-patient has no history of receipt of blood, a past neurosurgical procedure, or residing in or visiting countries of Europe. Based on the patient's history, the occurrence of a previously reported Saudi case of vCJD attributed to likely consumption of BSE-contaminated cattle products in Saudi Arabia, and the expected greater than 7 year incubation period for food-related vCJD, this U.S. case-patient was most likely infected from contaminated cattle products consumed as a child when living in Saudi Arabia (1). The current patient has no history of donating blood and the public health investigation has identified no risk of transmission to U.S. residents from this patient.

The CDC also says the first two U.S. cases were believed to originate in the UK: "The two previously reported vCJD case-patients in U.S. residents were each born and raised in the United Kingdom (U.K.), where they were believed to have been infected by the agent responsible for their disease." If the facts are accurate it means that all of the U.S. human mad cow cases to date have originated outside the U.S.

MAD COW