SCI/TECH: First US Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Fatality

FLORIDA - A woman suffering from the human form of mad cow disease, has died Sunday. Charlene Singh died after being ill for multiple years having the fatal and incurable variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, she was the first person in the US diagnosed with the illness. Reports indicate that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will investigate further.


According to her family she probably contracted the virus over a decade ago after consuming contaminated meat in Britain, the nation she was born and raised in. During the 1980s and 1990s an outbreak swept over the country affecting tens of thousands of cattle. The majority of the worldwide more than 150 cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob were reported in Britain.

WHO - Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition. As with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vCJD is classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) because of characteristic spongy degeneration of the brain and its ability to be transmitted. vCJD is a new disease that was first described in March 1996.

WHO - Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a transmissible, neurodegenerative, fatal brain disease of cattle. The disease has a long incubation period of four to five years, but ultimately is fatal for cattle within weeks to months of its onset. BSE first came to the attention of the scientific community in November 1986 with the appearance in cattle of a newly-recognized form of neurological disease in the United Kingdom (UK).

relevant information:
New Scientist - BSE and vCJD

other relevant articles:
CIDRAP - Florida woman dies of probable vCJD
Bloomberg - CDC Joins Inquiry Into Probable Florida Mad-Cow Case
CNN - Woman thought to have human form of mad cow disease dies

[edit on 22-6-2004 by Banshee]

It's not a nice way to die...
You have to wonder, with the lax regulations with regard to beef in the past (if not still) how many people in the United States have vCJD. There could be outbreaks in the future; just as scientists in Britain say that there could still be groups of people infected, yet still showing no symptoms, and the numbers *could* be in the 1000's.

Did anyone mention John Titor?

What exactly did Titor supposedly say about this? I've heard mention of it before.

sad to say but as my grandma puts its...there's a reason hindus don't eat meat from a cow...she feels that this particular incident, especially since the girl was of indian descent, is a message to hindus, to remember their religion and traditions and not to get caught up in the western culture.

now me on the other hand while I currently don't eat beef or pork, I was a beef eater during two pregnancies, cravings just couldn't help myself.....so I don't share my grandma's sentiments.... I feel really bad for the family of the girl....to think a harmless hamburger did this girl in while in the prime of her life..they had high hopes last fall, that she would survive since oxygen treatments were having a positive effect on her.

btw i do believe that Ms. Singh was currently the only known case of the disease in the usa.

www.abovetopsecret.com...
Heres some articles on VJD that Gryffen has coverd on the subject you might find some of the links of a use .

This www.anomalies-unlimited.com... link is to a page with some rambling text about past cases of C-J disease, but at the bottom is a list of evryday products that may also harbor those dangerous prions. A while back I read about a study of the brain tissue of people who had supposedly died of Alzheimer's Disease (US), in which something like 5% were determined to be likely victims of new variant C-V, which projected to some really phenomenal number of potential latent cases. This link www.biomedcentral.com... mentions a similarity between the proteins involved in the two diseases. Here www.alternet.org... is an interesting article postulating that the two diseases may actually be the same. Sorry I can't spend more time digging and vetting these, only have my lunch hour, maybe someone can dig some more to validate/invalidate some of this?