Re: Mad Cow Disease, has any human ever had it, or died from it?

My 15 yr. old niece asked me that last night. She wanted to know how it started, and if any human could get it, or has gotten it, or died from it.
Thank you for your answers!

Yes, a few humans have gotten and died from it. Most were in the UK, but there a cannibal tribes that have had outbreaks of it too. It is caused by a prion (which is a mutated protien molecule) that attatches to protien molecules in the brain and mutates them to match its shape. Then there are two which go out to mutate two more and so on and so forth. However, you have to have a very specific genetic makeup to be susceptible to it. Most people aren't so it isn't a raging epidemic. It is caused by animals being fed protien from infected animals. The prion is amazingly hardy and virtually impossible to destroy for some reason.

It becomes CJD in humans who can catch it from eating infected animals and it has already killed a lot of people in the U.K.

yes they have died from it it is a disease transmitted by eating beef and there have been fatalities