Woman believed to have CJD

A seriously ill Morrinsville woman is believed to have the fatal brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Associate Professor Martin Pollock, head of the Otago University-based CJD registry, said the woman, aged in her 50s, had been entered on the register but the diagnosis could usually be confirmed only by autopsy.

The woman is suspected to have sporadic CJD - not variant CJD, which is linked to mad cow disease.

In August, a 26-year-old Waikato farm worker was thought to be New Zealand's first case of variant CJD but tests later ruled it out.