She later moved to the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock. Doctors first told Harold it was stress and offered drug and alcohol treatment. The disease has been recognized in the United States at least since the 1950s. Symptoms of the classic and variant forms are basically the same, except that the new variant has a shorter latency period and kills younger people, Beals said. A person can have the classic form for decades before symptoms manifest themselves.
Victims become forgetful and aggressive as their brains waste away.
The degeneration progresses much faster than with Alzheimer's disease, doctors said. It's emotionally very devastating. Gazing at his wife's face, Harold Blossom says she used to wear her long, dark hair loose. Harold reads the Bible to her and shows her cards from her Baptist church Sunday School class. Harold, a Cherokee Indian, met Naoma in Little Rock where he taught Cherokee language classes.