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NSW Health says CJD, a strain of mad cow disease, is rare and not caused by eating animals. Source: AAP
NSW health authorities are assuring the public that the variant of mad cow disease that’s left a Sydney man clinging to life is not contagious.
FRANK Burton, 63, is in isolation at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after being diagnosed with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which belongs to a group of diseases that also includes mad cow’s disease.
Sporadic CJD affects one in a million people worldwide and is not caused by eating animals, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, the Director of Health Protection at NSW Health said on Wednesday.