Cape woman positive for rare brain disease

Mass. official says the illness is not communicable

Dr. Alfred Demaria, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health epidemiologist, spoke about the Cape Cod patient. (STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

An elderly patient at Cape Cod Hospital has tested positive for a rare brain ailment called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, state public health officials announced yesterday.

Each year in Massachusetts, about six people are diagnosed with the degenerative disorder, which in most cases leads to rapid death, health officials said. The patient's identity is not being released.

The disease, known for decades among neurologists, first came to widespread public attention during the mad cow scare of the 1980s, when a strain of the disorder was linked to tainted beef in the United Kingdom.

But only three such cases of the particular strain have been identified in the United States, and all of those were in patients who had come from Britain.

The Cape patient had not been tested for the Creutzfeldt-Jakob strain that is related to mad cow disease since the test takes weeks, the strain is so rare, and there was no indication that she had that strain, said Dr. Alfred Demaria, the Department of Public Health's top epidemiologist.

Demaria said that the disease is not communicable and that there is no need for public concern.

"It's a very rare disease," Demaria said. "There's a lot of things that threaten people every day that are much, much, more common than this."

He added that the annual incidence is one in a million.

Further tests will be conducted to determine the cause of the Cape woman's illness.

State disease trackers said there is nothing to suggest that her case is associated with mad cow disease.

Instead, as in virtually all cases in the United States, it is almost certainly not linked to any obvious external cause.

Cape Cod Hospital did not return immediate calls for comment.