CJD

Date: Tue 19 Dec 2000 13:32:18 -0500
From: Marjorie P. Pollack
Source: Xinhua News Agency, Tue 19 Dec 2000 12:51 PM EST [edited]


Human Death from Mad Cow Disease in S. Africa Not Confirmed
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JOHANNESBURG: On Tue 19 Dec 2000, the Health Department of South Africa
denied that the death of a comparatively young South African woman this
year was due to new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human form
of mad cow disease. The woman died 6 months ago [diagnosed as a case of
CJD] and media reports speculated that the woman was the first victim of
mad cow disease in South Africa.

Following the speculation, the Health Department arranged with the National
Institute for Virology to obtain an expert opinion on whether available
brain tissue samples from the woman showed any sign of the disease.
However, after laboratory tests, no evidence of mad cow disease was found
in the woman's tissue samples.

Because of the enormous public interest in this matter, the Health
Department decided to invite international experts for further
opinion. Dr. Sherif Zaki, an eminent histopathologist at the United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, was asked to examine
the tissue, and he too drew the conclusion that the woman's death was not
caused by mad cow disease.

--
ProMED-mail


[The background for this report can be found in the statement by Prof.
Swanepoel, Director of the Special Pathogens Unit at the South African
Institute of Virology, in the previous ProMED-mail post. "Although
sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) generally (but not invariably)
occurs in older patients, there is no evidence to indicate that the patient
under discussion suffered from (new) variant CJD (vCJD). The brain biopsy
sample examined by histopathologists showed lesions compatible with
[classical] CJD, and reportedly there were no features to suggest a
diagnosis of vCJD. Nevertheless, the tissue sample was very small. The
original tissue blocks were destroyed but the stained sections remain
available and are being referred to specialists in the field for an
opinion." The press report indicates that the woman's death is
attributable to the sporadic form of CJD, and that there is no evidence to
support a diagnosis of vCJD. - Mod.C

A ProMED-mail post
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