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'Mad cow' found in HK
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A HONG KONG woman who lived in Britain for years may be Asia's first victim of the fatal brain-wasting illness linked to mad cow disease, her doctor and health officials said on Saturday.
The 34-year-old woman is believed to have contracted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease, Donald Lyon of the Prince of Wales Hospital told reporters.
“It's the same form of disease which has been reported in the United Kingdom,” said Lyon, adding that the woman's condition was serious.
If she is confirmed as having vCJD -- which attacks the brain causing death -- it would likely be the first time the disease has appeared in Asia, he said.
“I believe that if this case is confirmed it would be Asia's first case. Although, of course, this patient actually became unwell in the United Kingdom and came back,” he said.
He said she likely caught the disease in Britain by eating contaminated beef, and stressed vCJD was not spread through social contact.
“So this lady, if she is confirmed, most likely acquired the disease in the United Kingdom and then came back,” he said.
“She can't walk and can't talk coherently, but she is still conscious,” another of her doctors, neurologist Richard Kay said.
The woman, who is Chinese, lived in Britain between 1985 and 1992, and then from 1997 until two months ago, shortly after which she was admitted to hospital in Hong Kong suffering from depression and memory loss.
Her doctor rejected an earlier news report she had contracted a new strain of the disease. “It's not a new form of vCJD,” Lyon said.
Scientists believe vCJD is caused by eating meat infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
The only way to confirm if a patient was stricken with the classic -- or sporadic -- or variant version of the disease is by autopsy.
vCJD was first detected in 1996 in Britain, where about 100 cases have been reported so far. All but a handful have been fatal.
Hong Kong recorded some 18 cases of classic CJD between 1996 and 2000, according to press reports. Most of the sufferers have died.
Hong Kong banned British beef over mad cow fears in 1996.(SD-Agencies)
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