THE unexpectedly low death toll in the UK from variant CreutzfeldtJakob disease is one of the great puzzles of recent years. There might now be an explanation.
Though 151 people have died so far, epidemiologists had predicted many more deaths because of the large quantity of infected beef consumed in the UK.
Now experiments on mouse brain cells have hinted at a tantalising explanation: most people were protected through prior infection with an as yet unidentified milder strain of agent similar to the one that causes vCJD in humans and BSE in cows.
Laura Manuelidis of Yale University School of…
