The fourth death from Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease caused by mad cow disease has been reported in the United States, health officials say.
Variant CJD or Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a fatal brain disorder mainly caused due to eating beef from cattle and ant with mad cow disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a press release.
According to the CDC, the lab test reports have confirmed that a patient in Texas who recently died had Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
The CDC says Variant CJD was first identified in the United Kingdom in 1996. So far over 220 cases have been reported worldwide with the majority in Europe.
The infection is believed to have happened while the patient was traveling abroad. The Texan patient has traveled “extensively” to Europe and the Middle East, the CDC said.
Variant VJD: Fourth case of mad cow disease reported in Texas
“There are no Texas public health concerns or threats associated with this case,” the Texas Department of State Health Services posted to its website.
Mad cow disease is officially called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
Types of CJD include:
- variant (vCJD)
- sporadic (sCJD)
- familial (fCJD)
- iatrogenic
Some of the signs and symptoms include:
- rapidly progressive dementia
- memory loss
- personality changes
- hallucinations
- anxiety
- depression
- paranoia
- obsessive-compulsive symptoms
- psychosis
