The Virginian-Pilot
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PORTSMOUTH
The Virginia Department of Health should have test results back in several months that will determine whether a young woman who died Wednesday had a rare brain disorder that has been linked to mad cow disease.
Health department officials stressed again Thursday that they were looking into a range of disorders.
The 22-year-old woman, identified in media reports as Aretha Vinson, died at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center. She had been suffering from encephalopathy, a degenerative brain condition that can be caused by "infections, lack of oxygen to the brain, liver failure, kidney failure, toxic exposures, metabolic diseases, brain tumors, increased intracranial pressure and poor nutrition," said Dr. Karen Remley, state health commissioner, in a written statement Thursday.
"Further testing is the only way to know what caused this illness," Remley added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Virginia will be among those analyzing test results.
One possibility is a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as vCJD, a rare degenerative brain disorder that has been linked to consumption of contaminated beef. The disease is not spread through casual contact from person to person and is thought to have an incubation period of 10 years or more.
There are also other forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as CJD, that are unrelated to beef consumption. State officials will look into those as well.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease strikes about 200 people a year in the United States. The most common forms of the disease have no known cause or are linked to a genetic mutation. Fewer than 1 percent of cases are linked to medical procedures.
To date, the CDC has recorded three cases in the United States of the variant that has been linked to mad cow disease. In two of the cases, the people were born and raised in Great Britain - which has seen the most cases - before moving to this country. The third person had recently moved from Saudi Arabia.
Nancy Young, (757) 446-2947, nancy.young@pilotonline.com
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vCJD or Mad Cow
It is interesting how they keep talking about her this way...She was perfectly health and fine before the surgery....How can you go under fine and have surgery and wake up had have your brain to start shutting down? There is something else going on here....
How would she have focused in college if the disease they are speaking of was present? It would have showed itself in some form while forcing the brain to remember material just studied...Remember she just graduated last May from college....Wouldn't she or someone detected something was wrong? She could not even remember her family, the surgery and anything else, so what is going on? It makes me say huh!! Mad Cow, yet, right!!!!!!!! vCJD, I don't think so!!! Why not look at something else...Stop scaring people about mad cow, lets be real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In case you are wondering, Yes, I did know her................
vCJD Rare
Wow, "rare" may be an understatement, if it is vCJD, particularly in the United States. To someone born in the USA this would be the first. To date there have only been 3 diagnosed cases in the US, none of the 3 were born in the USA, the last one was a Saudi transplant diagnosed in 2006. The evidence, & what they (CDC) do suspect about 3 vCJD cases seem to point towards the disease being initiated in the other countries. I'm wondering if this victim has previously lived abroad, possibly in the UK, or France, which are #1 & 2 numerically. No other countries even come close in frequency. I will be looking for more information on this story. I hope the Pilot follows up on it as soon as the testing at the CDC & UVA is completed, or as any information becomes available, as well as any new similar cases.