Czech Republic-Mad Cow disease.

CZECH REPUBLIC.

Woman hospitalised with suspected BSE

Teplice, North Bohemia, March 9 (CTK) - A 60-year-old woman has been taken to hospital in Teplice with a suspected new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as the human form of the mad-cow disease and transferred to people from infected beef, commercial TV Prima reported Monday.

It is not clear where and how the woman caught the infection, TV Prima said, citing regional Health Inspectorate director Josef Trmal.

Beef and veal have been strictly checked for several years.

According to TV Prima, the patient, coming from Bilina, north Bohemia, might have caught the disease in the past, before the checks were introduced.

The incubation period of the disease can be up to several decades, TV Prima said.

"It is possible that some cases may be tied with the spread of the infection in the 1980s and the 1990s," Trmal told the station.

The doctors reportedly for a long time could not determine what the woman was suffering from. Her hospitalisation was proposed by her relatives due to her starting dementia.

A few days ago, after her month-long stay in hospital, the diagnosis of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease was confirmed, TV Prima said, citing a nurse who requested anonymity.

The woman’s chances of recovery are low.

"There exists no treatment to secure the patients’ survival," said Trmal.

Last year, no case of mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE) was uncovered in cattle in the Czech Republic, for the first time since 2001.

After the first BSE case was detected in the country eight years ago, their number continued to rise until 2005 when eight infected animals were registered. They have gradually declined since.

Since 2001, all slaughtered cattle aged over 30 months have been tested for BSE.

For the last time, the tests uncovered BSE in a cow that died at a north Bohemian farm in December 2007.