CJD 'passed to infant' in Britain

LONDON - Doctors in Britain believe that a baby has been born with the human form of the deadly "mad cow" disease.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph said four doctors who examined the 11-month-old girl, whose mother died of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) this year, believe she has the symptoms.

They say the baby probably contracted the disease in the womb.

The infant, who was seven months old when her mother died, has brain damage and suffers from fits and convulsions.

A conclusive analysis of whether the child has vCJD could be made only by a post-mortem examination.

If the child's disease were confirmed, it would be the first known case of vCJD being transmitted from a mother to her baby.

The latest Government figures showed that the number of "definite and probable" cases of the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) had risen to 79 from 77 in the previous month.

Mad cow disease first broke out in British herds in 1986 and peaked in 1992.

Four years later, scientists identified vCJD and suggested it could be contracted from eating contaminated beef.

Dozens of people have died in Britain from the disease, which destroys its victims' brains.

- REUTERS