Mad cow disease causes fourth death in Spain

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Mad cow disease has killed four people in Spain. Photo: EFE

Spain's Health Ministry is reporting the country's fourth fatality from the human version of mad cow disease.

The ministry says tests confirmed a woman in her 60s who died in August in northern Castilla-Leon region had variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

A ministry statement released Thursday says the woman contracted the illness prior to 2001, when Spain imposed tougher controls on livestock and meat production. It is common for the first symptoms to appear five or even 10 years after a person contracts the disease, according to the Health Ministry.

Ministry officials refused to comment on press reports that the woman's son also died of the disease in February, a coincidence that would be extremely rare.