The human health condition linked to mad cow disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the condition that took Mark Douglas's life. And according to the Daily Mail, the diagnosis came as a shock to his family.
Douglas initially was taken to the hospital with strange symptoms that confused family members. He was then diagnosed with CJD just weeks before he passed away.
“We thought it can't be CJD -- he was the wrong age group and all sorts, but that was what he had,” Douglas’s girlfriend, Laura Baird, told Daily Mail. “It was a massive shock to us…"
Douglas visited the hospital the first time two days before Christmas. However, medical experts couldn’t find the cause of his symptoms. A CAT scan, lumbar and blood tests revealed nothing. However, the correct diagnosis finally came three days after New Year’s Day. He then died on January 20.
CJD strikes very few people. The National Institutes of Health report about 300 cases in the U.S. annually; it strikes approximately one in a million worldwide.
This brings us to a second question: What is CJD? And why does it kill us?
According to the Mayo Clinic, CJD is a degenerative brain disorder that causes dementia and eventually leads to death. Here’s the thing: The disease itself can seem like other dementia illnesses. For example, it can resemble Alzheimer’s, which initially can confuse healthcare practitioners. That said, it’s different than dementia illnesses in that it progresses quickly.
This is where cattle come into play. Experts report that humans can contract the disease by eating beef products that contain central nervous system tissue. WebMD says that examples of this would be the brain and spinal cord. This is why these portions of cattle are taken out of the beef products that we eat -- by law.
According to E-Medicine Health, the transmittable part of the disease is related to prions, abnormal protein particles that cause both the human and cattle-ridden form of the disease. They are said to be different than typical causes of spreadable diseases, like bacteria and viruses.