Yesterday, South Carolina governor Jim Hodges imposed a 15-day moratorium on The Seattle Times is reporting that a Denver hospital spokeswoman, discussing two recent deaths, described Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) as “the human form of ‘mad cow disease.'” Also, several radio shows about mad cow disease have been inundated in recent days with callers claiming to know of two Colorado mad-cow diagnoses. Don’t believe a word of it. Both patients died of “classic” CJD, a well-documented ailment that kills nearly 300 Americans every year and has nothing to do with meat consumption. The Associated Press points out that while CJD is similar to mad cow disease, the distinction is an important one to make.
