Return of human Mad Cow Disease as Irishman dies of mystery brain condition

A father of two died of a lethal brain condition at Cork University Hospital last week and the cause remains unknown.

The man, who was in his late 40s, underwent treatment for a few weeks for what doctors determined to be a neurological condition, at CUH. Health Officials denied claims that he was affected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD,) insisting they have not received any recent notification of the presence of the disease.

One common form of CJD is known as the human Mad Cow disease, and yesterday a family friend said that in the final stages of the man’s life, doctors began researching to see if his condition involved a form of CJD.

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The victim, a worker in the transit sector, began to feel sickly last year. His symptoms included a slurring of speech and frequent spells of dizziness and tiredness which are often related to neurological diseases. The middle aged man was a UK national of Asian descent and lived in the Cork area for the past decade with his Irish wife and two children.

Since 1996 Ireland has recorded four cases of variant CJD, which is the form linked to Mad Cow disease, and seven cases of classic CJD since 2008. Mad Cow disease is believed to be caused by cattle consuming feedstuffs including brain and spinal offal.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) insisted that it has not received any formal notification of a discovery of CJD regarding the Cork resident. The Herald reported that a full autopsy was conducted following the man’s death and it will be another couple of weeks before all laboratory results are available.