Japan Has First Death from Human Mad Cow Disease - NYT 2/4/05

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Japan Has First Death from Human Mad Cow Disease

 

By REUTERS

 

Published: February 4, 2005

 

Filed at 3:06 a.m. ET

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan confirmed on Friday its first case of the human

variant of mad cow disease, a fatal brain disease thought to be

contracted by eating infected beef.

 

The Health Ministry said that a Japanese man had died last December from

variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), adding that he probably

contracted the fatal illness during a month-long stay in Britain in 1989.

 

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``I know that this will make many people worry, but we must take note of

the fact that his stay was only one month,'' Tetsuyuki Kitamoto, a

Tohoku University professor and head of the ministry panel on the

disease, told a news conference.

 

 

More than 160 people, most of them in Britain, have died worldwide from

definitive or probable vCJD after eating meat contaminated with mad cow

disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

 

 

Britain has been the worst hit by BSE, which is thought to be

transmitted among animals via feed containing bovine brains or spinal cord.

 

Around 7 million animals had been slaughtered in Britain by the end of

June 2004 under a scheme aimed at preventing the spread of the infection.

 

Japan has reported 14 cases of BSE and began testing all its cattle for

the disease after the first case in September 2001.

 

It also banned imports of Canadian beef in May 2003 and of U.S. beef in

December 2003 after cases of mad cow disease were found in those

countries, and is in drawn-out talks on when to lift the ban.

 

Cases of vCJD have also been reported in France, Canada, Ireland, Italy,

the United States and China, Health Ministry officials said.

 

In all cases outside of Europe, victims are believed to have contracted

the disease during stays in Britain, but a one month period would be the

shortest stay reported so far, the experts on the health ministry panel

said.

 

The Japanese man, who was in his 40s when he first showed symptoms of

the disease in December 2001, had no record of blood transfusions or

brain surgery -- other ways in which the disease could be transmitted.

 

The Health Ministry sought to calm any fears among the Japanese public,

issuing a statement saying that the disease is not transmitted among

humans under regular living conditions.

 

Doctors on the panel said people could consult physicians, but added

that at present, there was no way to determine whether a person would

show symptoms or to stop the progress of the disease.

 

Scientists estimate the incubation period for vCJD as 10 to 20 years.