Eighty have died. It is unknown how many more cases may develop because the disease has a lengthy incubation period. It appears to affect mostly young people but at the end of October 2000 it was revealed an elderly man died of the disease in 1999. Doctors had initially diagnosed him with Alzheimer's disease. In the early stages of the disease, symptoms are often misdiagnosed as a psychological rather than physical disorder.
Sufferers become paranoid and forgetful.
This is followed by staggering, muscle spasms, eye twitches, loss of vision, paralysis and finally complete physical and mental deterioration. The first victims were diagnosed as early as 1989. For most Britons, the watershed date was March 20, 1996. The government had no choice. It had been advised that a new variant of CJD was likely caused by eating BSE infected meat.