Woman did not die of mad cow disease

BY GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE Chester-East Lincoln learning disabilities teacher Connie Albert, 57, died Saturday from a form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that should not be confused with the human form of mad cow disease, health and animal experts say. Earlier reports had been ambiguous as to what she had and where it could have been contracted. Tests performed by a lab in Columbus, Ohio, provided a diagnosis for Albert of "sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." The diagnosis was made after Albert's vision blurred some three months before her death. Samples of her spinal fluid were sent to the lab. The human form of mad cow disease is called "variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." The diseases are in the same family of diseases; both attack the brain, and both are always fatal, say the authorities. The distinction is so important, the Illinois Department of Health Tuesday issued a statement saying "there are no confirmed or suspected cases of a type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Illinois commonly referred to as mad cow disease." The formal name for mad cow disease is "bovine spongiform encephalopathy." People who eat beef having the disease may get the human form of the disease, or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Mad cow disease was responsible for the mass slaughter of cattle herds in England and nearly 200 people in that country who died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Only one animal in U.S. is known to have died from mad cow disease - a dairy cow - and that animal did not enter the food chain, according to Dr. William Shulaw, a veterinarian with the Ohio State University Extension Service.