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LONDON — British scientists have developed a preliminary blood test that could one day be used to detect the proteins that cause the human form of mad cow disease, according to a new study.
The disease-carrying proteins, or prions, that cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can remain dormant for decades, and there are currently no reliable tests to detect them. After the mad-cow scare that hit Britain in the 1980s, some experts fear there might be thousands of hidden cases in the country. The department of health estimates one in 4,000 Britons could be infected.
In a study published today in the medical journal Lancet, scientists describe a new blood test that can identify tiny amounts of the prions that cause mad cow disease.
