The death in Britain of a 74-year-old man from the human version of madcow disease has triggered fears that the number of cases could be more than twice as high as previously thought, an British newspaper reported Saturday.
Professor Roy Anderson told The Independent that up to now all the victims of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD) had been young.
But the death of an older person suggested the incubation period of the fatal brain disease could be much longer, he added.
"We're trying to redo the analysis at the moment because we'd been somewhat misguided by the considerable clustering of the cases in the younger age groups," said Anderson.
"This one case somewhat changes that view, so we are in the process of taking into account the rise of the numbers in the light of a considerably broader age range."
Until now, the team of scientists led by Anderson had predicted that about 6,000 people could have been infected by vCJD between 1980 and 1996.
If the incubation period was up to 60 years that figure could jump to as many as 130,000, according to preliminary estimates.
The disease, thought to be passed to humans from cattle infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), has so far infected 85 people in Britain, 80 of whom have died.
Britain announced a multi-million pound package of care and compensation for victims of mad cow disease on Thursday after an official inquiry criticized fatal flaws in the handling of the crisis.
The BSE crisis has devastated the British beef industry, cost taxpayers billions of pounds and shattered the credibility of government pronouncements on public health -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
