|
PARIS (AP)
A French teen-ager believed to have been suffering from the human
variant of mad cow disease has died after slowly losing the ability
to walk, speak and breathe.
Arnaud Eboli,
19, died Wednesday after fighting the brain-wasting ailment for
more than two years, according to the Association of Victims of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
His death
marks France's third fatality from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,
which is linked to the consumption of tainted beef. In Britain,
where mad cow disease was identified in 1995, 90 people have died
of the disease.
Eboli, once
an athlete who excelled at skiing and martial arts, lost the ability
to bathe or feed himself. Before he died, he was paralyzed and
kept alive through a feeding tube.
Doctors diagnosed
Eboli in Dec. 1999, after a biopsy of his tonsils detected traces
of an infectious protein, prion, often found in people suffering
from the disease. The disease can only be confirmed by a brain
biopsy, usually after death.
Eboli's family
was one of two French families that filed a lawsuit in November
charging that French, British and European Union authorities did
not act quickly enough to wipe out mad cow disease.
The suit alleges
that Eboli and Laurence Duhamel, who died in 1999 at age 36, were
victims of poisoning and manslaughter.
France has
taken drastic measures such as outlawing certain at-risk cuts
of beef, like the T-bone steak to try to safeguard public health.
New cases
of the animal ailment are expected to break out in France until
2002 five years after agriculture authorities took rigorous measures
to prevent more outbreaks. About 150 cows were discovered with
the disease in France last year, compared to 31 the year before.
|
