Blood test for human form of mad cow disease developed

Monday, January 16, 2012 - 10:01 in Health & Medicine

(Medical Xpress) -- Mad cow disease is serious business in the U.K., the human form, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob after Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob (CJD), who independently first described its existence in humans, (more commonly known as variant CJD, or vCJD), has killed 176 people in that country since 1995, and worse, authorities suspect that thousands more may have it right now. Fortunately, it appears that a blood test has been developed that can identify the prion involved, which until now has only been identifiable via brain autopsies, or sometimes through tonsil biopsies. Currently, there is no cure for vCJD. Those infected lose proper brain function and eventually die within a few months to a couple of years after onset of symptoms. After death, the victims brains appear sponge-like due to the holes left behind as clumps of tissue die. The disease is neither viral nor bacterial and...

Read the whole article on Physorg

More from Physorg

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net