020261 Mad Cow Disease Claims First Victim in Hong KongFebruary 22, 2002Hong Kong - Hong Kong's only known victim of the human form of mad cow disease has died, health officials said. The 35-year-old woman, identified only as Chan, died on Wednesday morning after fighting the brain- wasting new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) for 16 months, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority said. Doctors believed the woman contracted the disease when she lived in Britain from 1985 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2001. She returned to Hong Kong for medical treatment in January 2001. In Europe, vCJD has killed about 100 people, mostly in Britain. New variant CJD differs from the classic form of CJD in its early psychiatric symptoms and prevalence among young victims. The disease is thought to be caused by eating beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The classic form of CJD occurs randomly in the population and generally strikes people over age 60. This form of the disease is not linked to consumption of BSE-contaminated meat.
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