FLORIDA WOMAN DIES from Mad Cow Disease

[Josephine96]

Florida Woman Dies From Mad Cow Disease
25-Year-Old Contracted Disease Years Ago

POSTED: 8:36 pm EDT June 21, 2004
UPDATED: 8:50 pm EDT June 21, 2004
MIRAMAR, Fla. -- A 25-year-old woman with the human variant of mad cow disease has died, the first such death in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Charlene Singh died at her father's Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday.

She was diagnosed two years ago with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a brain-wasting illness known as mad cow disease.

"I felt her hands, they were cold but her body was warm," her father, Patrick Singh, told The Miami Herald for Tuesday editions.

"I would not believe it. I put my ear to her chest to hear her heart. I just started to cry."

No deaths related to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been previously reported in the United States, said Llelwyn Grant, spokesman for the CDC.

Singh and his ex-wife, Alison, said they believe their daughter ate contaminated beef sometime before 1992 in England, where the family formerly lived.

The disease has killed more than 140 people in Great Britain and at least 10 others in other parts of the world. No Americans are known to have contracted the disease in this country, although one case of disease has been reported in a cow.

Charlene Singh lived with her family in London until she was 13. After earning her business management degree at the University of Miami, she noticed the first symptoms: irritability, forgetfulness and uncharacteristic outbursts of anger.

"She asked me one day, 'What is wrong with me?"' said her aunt Amru Ramsaran. "I didn't know what to say to her because at that time no one was totally sure what it was."

[Brent]

[GalvestonDuck]

"I felt her hands, they were cold but her body was warm," her father, Patrick Singh, told The Miami Herald for Tuesday editions.

"I would not believe it. I put my ear to her chest to hear her heart. I just started to cry."

I hope to God they quarantine him and any other family members that were there after she died!

When I worked in the ER and my co-workers and I had to take an expired patient to the morque, sometimes we would encounter the "CJD" signs on the door which told us that we needed to suit up with gown, mask, and gloves because there was a patient in the refrigerator (gross, I know, but that's what it's called) who had died of CJD. Of course, it's not quite the same as vCJD, but it's also a form of encephalopathy and it's highly contagious AFTER death. The body was usually wrapped several times over also. I remember trying to hold my breath, not because of the smell, but because I worry about breathing anything airborne near the body.

I feel for the family, but I honestly hope precautions were taken to prevent further spreading of the disease. Ick!

[Skywatch_NC]

Never would imagine that it would be contagious after someone has expired!

Eric

[GalvestonDuck]

Never would imagine that it would be contagious after someone has expired!

Eric

It's sort of just like with cows, Eric. Even though the cow is dead, the tissue that we consume (beef) could be contaminated, the blood that we might come in contact with through a cut on our finger could be contaminated (thus, the risk at butcheries, slaughterhouses, and meat packing plants), and the bones we come in contact with could be contaminated (they've discovered vCJD after the bones were ground up into bone meal and used on roses). Unlike HIV and some other untreatable deadly diseases, the prions (not a virus) that spread this disease live on after the host is deceased.

It's *rare* for someone to get CJD that way (unless they came in contact with blood or tissue during an autopsy or post-mortem care), but since it's untreatable, every precaution had to be taken by hospital staff.

[HurricaneGirl]

[Josephine96]

I saw this story and got an look too.. I didn't think it could happen