Girl, 15, becomes latest 'mad cow' victim

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Girl, 15, is youngest to die from CJD

By Sean O'Neill

Thursday 9 March 2000

 

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl who has died after a long illness is believed to be the

youngest victim of the human form of mad cow disease.

 

Claire McVey died in January from suspected variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,

which is linked to consumption of BSE-infected beef. If vCJD is

confirmed as the cause of her death, she may have contracted it in infancy.

Since vCJD was identified in 1992 there have been 52 deaths from the disease in

Britain. The average age of those who have died is

29.

 

Claire was a pupil at Ilfracombe Community College in Devon. An inquest into her

death has been opened and adjourned pending scientific investigation of tissue

samples. But the CJD surveillance unit in

Edinburgh has been notified of her death and she has been included in the latest

statistics recording deaths from the illness.

 

She died at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where a post mortem examination was

carried out. A spokesman said: " We can confirm that we conducted an autopsy on a

teenager which confirmed a diagnosis of variant CJD. "

 

Dr Mark Kealy, consultant in communicable diseases at North Devon health

authority, said there was no danger of the disease having spread to her family

or classmates. He said: " One assumes that she must have had links with bovine

offal and consumed it in the past before the controls were put in place and

properly enforced.

 

" What we are seeing at present are people who were presumably infected in the

mid to late Eighties. It is possible this girl may have contracted the illness

when she was a toddler. "

 

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Girl, 15, becomes latest 'mad cow' victim

Times of London 3/9/00

By Simon De Bruxelles

 

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl from north Devon is believed to have become the youngest

victim of the human form of " mad cow " disease. The girl, who has not been

named, died at the end of February from new variant CJD, six months after

falling ill. Health experts said

yesterday that she may have contracted the incurable disease from eating a

beefburger contaminated with infected meat more than ten years ago.

 

The teenager, who was a pupil at Ilfracombe Community College, is the 52nd

victim of the disease linked to BSE, according to Dr James Ironside, of the CJD

surveillance unit in Edinburgh. Although doctors are confident of the diagnosis,

the cause of death will not be officially confirmed until tests have been

carried out on brain tissue from the girl.

 

Dr Ironside said: " Since the first group of ten patients reported in 1996, there

have been 52 patients who have died from new variant CJD. There is a smaller

number of patients still alive who are suspected of having the disorder. The

girl, who is one of the 52, is one of the youngest cases. The average age of

people who die from variant CJD is 29. "

 

Last September, a 17-year-old girl from Lanarkshire in Scotland was reported to

have become the youngest known victim of the illness.

 

Ilfracombe Community College was one of the first Devon schools to introduce a

ban on beef products in school meals after confirmation that BSE in cattle

could be passed on to humans. The ban was lifted 18 months ago.

 

The school's headteacher, David Humphrey, said in a statement issued last night:

" A pupil died tragically earlier in the year following a long and serious

illness. The exact cause of death cannot be confirmed until a full inquest is

held in the near future.

 

" Whatever the cause, the death of a young person with their whole life ahead of

them is always hard and this will come as a great shock to the local community.

Our sympathy and our thoughts go out to the family and friends who are trying

hard to come to terms with their tragic loss.

 

" We are currently seeking advice from the Health Authorities, and if the cause

of death is confirmed as CJD, we will be sharing information with parents and

pupils at the school to allay fears, although my understanding is that other

pupils are not at risk. "

 

Devon County Council said the authority had been notified of the schoolgirl's

death. A spokesman for the North Devon coroner said an inquest will be held at a

later date.

 

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