Woman infected with ‘mad cow’

A WOMAN in northern Italy is seriously ill in hospital after reportedly being infected with the human version of mad cow disease.

It is only the second case of the brain-wasting illness variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ever reported in Italy. The first case was reported in 2002 in a woman in Sicily.

The Health Ministry said yesterday that the latest case had been diagnosed in October 2009.

Italian news reports said the 42-year-old woman was in hospital in Livorno.

Officials said the case probably dates back to the 1990s.