AP News -- possible Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Caribbean area.
May 26, 2001
Caribbean Illness Linked to Mad Cow
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:52 p.m. ET
POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe (AP) -- Officials in the French Caribbean on Saturday
confirmed three cases of a brain-wasting ailment in the islands and said one could be a
variant linked to mad cow disease.
Two of the patients are on the French island of Guadeloupe and the other patient is on
St. Martin.
One is possibly suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the human variation of the
disease linked to the consumption of beef infected with bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, known as mad cow disease, according to the French government's top
official on Guadeloupe, Jean Francois Carenco.
The other two cases are suspected to be another form of the fatal ailment that isn't linked
to eating infected meat, he said.
Earlier on Saturday in Paris, Health Ministry officials said they were still investigating if
the three patients had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Three people in France have already
died from it.
In Britain, where mad cow disease was identified in 1995, 100 people are believed to
have contracted the ailment. The disease can only be confirmed by a brain biopsy,
usually after death.
In 1997, a woman in Guadeloupe died from a form of the disease not linked to mad cow.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press |
