Open AccessCows for fear: is BSE a threat to human health? Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Author(s) -
Julian Josephson
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
environmental health perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 282
eISSN - 1552-9924
pISSN - 0091-6765
DOI - 10.1289/ehp.98106a134
Subject(s) - bovine spongiform encephalopathy , disease , creutzfeldt jakob syndrome , dementia , medicine , virology , environmental health , prion protein , pathology
In 1996, a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)-a disease that causes lack of coordination, muscle twitching or jerking, dementia, and, eventually, death-suddenly appeared in Great Britain. It is believed that the victims contracted the disease from eating the beef of cattle stricken with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. As of December 1997, at least 25 people in the United Kingdom and France have contracted vCJD.