ANDOVER, Conn., March 26 (UPI) -- A Connecticut woman physicians suspected in 2000 of having human mad cow disease was overlooked by state and federal health officials.
Jodi Tharp, who was 50 when she died in March 2001, seems to have slipped through the cracks of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's monitoring program for the disease.
Although Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable condition that destroys the brain, is listed on her death certificate as the cause of death, doctors initially suspected variant CJD, the form of the disease linked to mad cow disease.
Her relatively young age put her in the population the CDC's surveillance system targets for further investigation because vCJD typically occurs in people under the age of 55.
However, her husband, Jim Tharp, told UPI he was never approached by CDC or Connecticut health officials. In addition, an autopsy -- the only way to diagnose the condition conclusively -- was never conducted.
The CDC, the Connecticut Department of Health and Jodi's neurologist declined to comment on the case.
There has been only one case of vCJD in the United States but the woman in that 2002 case is believed to have contracted it in England.
