Mad Cow Disease Symptoms

The mad cow disease is also known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or vCJD and its symptoms are very difficult to diagnose. But the disease affects different parts of the body, especially the brain and this happens when people are exposed to food contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy also known as BSE. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the CDC has been given the task of monitoring the incidence of all types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the U.S

Individuals worldwide diagnosed with mad cow disease have increased and the disease has no cure. Hence for the welfare of the public and concerned about the transmission of BSE to humans methods to combat the disease are being researched. The mad cow disease is a brain disorder which becomes deadly over time and there is no cure for the same.

The mad cow disease occurs in a person in one of three ways and these include heredity. It has been seen that almost 10 to 15 percent of cases of mad cow diseases are inherited and they result from a gene mutation. There are also many causes, where the disease appears sporadically, especially in someone who has no family history of the disease. A very small percentage of mad cow cases occur through infection and these are by contact with infected brain tissues. There are documented cases which have unintended consequence of a medical procedure.

The mad cow disease is not contagious in normal ways and hence problems like sneezing or coughing will not cause it. Till date there are no known cases of spouses or family members of an infected person contracting the disease due to sneezing or similar infections. The causes of mad cow disease has been related to contaminated beef products implicated and people eating contaminated beef products are affected by the same.

The mad cow disease is not caused due to a virus or bacteria as in other diseases, but is the source of a protein agent called a prion. This protein transforms normal proteins into infectious, deadly ones and thus leads to problems. Mad cow disease affects the brain and the symptoms it produces are neurological. These symptoms usually start out subtly with insomnia and depression. The other symptoms of the mad cow disease include confusion, personality and behavioral changes, and problems with memory, coordination, and sight.

With the progress of the disease, the person rapidly develops dementia and involuntary but irregular jerking movements that are known as myoclonus in medical terms.

In the final stage of the disease most of the patients tend to lose all mental and physical functions. Hence they may lapse into a coma, and eventually die and the course of the disease usually takes one year. This disease usually affects people between the ages of 50 to 75 years and the mad cow disease is difficult to diagnose. Till date there are no definitive medical tests for diagnosing the disease and it can be mistaken for various other kinds of diseases. Thus avoiding the disease or preventing it can be a big problem for most people.

• Janny Raines
• 18/04/2009, 12:59 PM
• 0 Comments