CJD fears grow for mum and new baby; EXCLUSIVE

DOCTORS treating a young mother who is dying from the human form of Mad Cow Disease were last night facing up to the possibility that she may have infected her newborn daughter.

The 24-year-old West Midlands woman has all the classic symptoms of New Variant CJD and is in isolation at Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry.

Her three-month-old daughter was thought to be in perfect health when born in November.

But the Sunday Mirror can reveal that she is now in the same hospital suffering from an undiagnosed condition which appears to have left her without a full range of responses.

Britain's top experts on CJD have been called in from the Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh and have taken samples from the mother.

A scientist from the unit last night said: "There is no doubt that this unfortunate woman has CJD.

"We have to face the possibility that she has infected her own child while it was in the womb."

Last night David Loughton, Chief Executive of the Walsgrave Hospital, offered the woman's family some hope for the baby, saying: "World-wide studies show there is no transfer of New Variant CJD from mother to child."

Copyright 2000 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.