'Mad Cow' Strain Kills Man
Toronto Star
August 9, 2002
Canadian Press
SASKATOON - A Saskatchewan man has died from what is believed to be the first Canadian case of a fatal brain illness linked to `mad cow' disease.
But the man got sick from eating contaminated meat in Britain, Health Canada said yesterday.
"All evidence points to the person having acquired variant (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) from multiple, long-term stays in the United Kingdom during the peak of the outbreak of ... mad cow disease," Dr. Antonio Giulivi of Health Canada said at a news conference.
Giulivi said Canada's food supply is safe and Canadians need not worry.
"There is no evidence that mad cow disease has entered the Canadian food supply and therefore we can reassure the Canadian public the person did not acquire the disease in Canada," he said.
Meanwhile, officials contacted 71 former patients of the Saskatoon hospital where the man died because there is a remote chance some medical equipment used on them may have been contaminated with the brain-wasting illness, for which there is no cure.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ravaged Britain's beef industry in the mid-1990s and forced the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of infected animals.
Since then, countries around the world have banned the import of British beef and turned away potential blood donors who have spent prolonged periods of time in Britain.
Thousands of Canadians visit Britain each year.
Health officials said the man died earlier this summer at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon. Officials would not release his age or the date of death because of patient confidentiality. But they said he was under 50.
While in Britain, he "regularly ate processed meat products," and those products, if made from infected cow meat, can transmit the disease to humans, Giulivi said. Some time before the man died, he had an endoscope examination at the hospital and the same equipment was then used on other patients.
Dr. Stephen Whitehead, deputy regional health officer in Saskatoon, said Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was not suspected at the time.
The man's case was first reported to Health Canada in April. The disease was confirmed by Canadian and British experts, with the final confirmation given to officials on Tuesday.
Medical officials stressed endoscopes are thoroughly disinfected and cleaned. But there's still theoretically a risk of contamination but it is minuscule, they added. An endoscope is a fibre-optic hose-like device covered with rubber that is placed down a person's throat for internal examinations. Decontamination of an endoscope for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease would destroy the $25,000 instrument.
Last summer a hospital in Windsor, Ont., which suspected an elderly patient of having the disease tried to sterilize surgical instruments used on the woman with sodium hydroxide. But the chemical was so caustic it corroded the stainless steel instruments.
Tests later found the woman did not have the rare brain disorder.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease kills brain cells, creating gaps in tissue and giving the brain a sponge-like appearance. Victims first start to show memory loss, mood swings and lack of co-ordination. Then comes shakiness and dementia. Eventually, the disease leaves its victims paralyzed and mute.
The disease has an average incubation period of seven to 15 years. Once symptomatic, patients usually die with 14 months. There are four known forms: three are believed to be genetic, or inherited.
The fourth form is called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - the human counterpart to `mad cow' disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). It is thought the disease is transmitted to cattle when they eat fodder made with the ground parts of infected animals.
It's believed humans can develop new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease when they eat meat from infected animals. More than 100 people in Europe have died since 1995 from eating contaminated meat. The Canadian Health Coalition says Health Canada is downplaying the risk. National co-ordinator Mike McBane suggested the government is protecting the agriculture sector and rendering industries at the expense of public health.
"They're misleading Canadians," he said from Ottawa. "I don't think the risk is all in England. There's risk right here in Canada."
McBane pointed to outbreaks of chronic wasting disease in elk and deer as possible sources of the `mad cow' disease in Canada and called for a halt to the rendering and feeding of dead animal proteins to livestock.
A Saskatoon woman said she was devastated to learn she may have been in contact with the agent that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after having a medical procedure at St. Paul's Hospital in May.
Jo-Anne Engele, 41, said a Saskatoon public health representative called her on Wednesday to tell her a person had died at the hospital earlier this year as a result of the disease. "It was very upsetting, because suddenly in one phone call somebody's telling me you could be tainted with mad cow disease. As little as I know about mad cow disease, I know that it's an awful thing."
Dennis Laycraft of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association said Canada's beef supply is safe.
"We've had safeguards in place in Canada from day one to ensure that we not only are free, but remain free of BSE and I think most people understand that," he said in Winnipeg.
The association proposes several measures, including a national identification system to trace beef products.
"People can enjoy beef that is produced in Canada with the highest level of confidence," Laycraft said.
Meanwhile, U.S. cattle markets and some restaurant stocks were briefly shaken by the news of the Saskatchewan man's death.
But markets quickly calmed when it became apparent the man contracted the disease in Britain.