British Mad Cow Human Toll Rises
The number
of people in Britain who died from a brain disease related to mad cow increased
in 2003, the New York Times reports.
The Department
of Health said 18 people died in 2003 from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
up from 17 in 2002. The increase is the first in four years, the department
said.
The disease,
known as vCJD, is thought to stem from eating infected beef and attacks
the human brain in much the same way as bovine spongiform encephalopathy
attacks the brains of cattle.
To date, 139
people in Britain have died from "definite or probable" cases of vCJD,
and another six are still living with the disease.
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Copyright 2004 by United
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