Human mad cow case in Netherlands

CNN.com
Friday, April 22, 2005

A patient in the Dutch city of Utrecht has been diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a human form of mad cow disease, the Dutch Health Ministry said.

The ministry, in a statement issued Thursday, said it is "the first known case" in the Netherlands.

"The case was reported by Rotterdam's Erasmus Medisch Centrum, the national surveillance center that monitors the disease in the Netherlands," the ministry said.

The country's National Health Inspectorate is investigating "whether the disease may have been transmitted to others," the ministry said.

The Dutch government has also contacted other European authorities.

"The patient concerned was never a blood or tissue donor, and never received any blood transfusions or tissue transplants. In light of that, it is highly improbable that this patient infected others or contracted the disease from someone else," the statement said.