Mad Cow Disease Kills Mother and Son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZK7N8WymgU&feature=player_embedded

Key Ideas:

• In Madrid, the mother of a Spanish man who died from the human form of mad cow disease has also died from the illness.
• It is the first case in the world where two members of the same family have died from mad cow disease.
• The mom was 60 when she died, and the son was 41 when he died.
• The steps to avoid the disease included isolating infected animals and prohibiting cattle feed of animal origin or with animal proteins.
• Researchers will try to determine whether the mother and son shared a genetic structure that might have been more prone to contracting the illness.

Reflection

This story was about a mother and her son dying form mad cow disease, and I found it an interesting article. I thought it was interesting because two people from the same family have never died from mad cow disease. I chose this story because I saw “mother and son die from…” as the title of the article, and I thought it would be interesting to see what the story was about. There are future implications that arise from this story. This story implies that this incident could happen again, but to another family. Also, it implies that the mad cow disease might be evolving. It is important for researchers to find this information out because it will help future generations prevent this disease. I would not want the mad cow disease to spread to the USA and infect my children when I am older. This course helped me to understand this topic because we watched a movie CJD and BSE and studied them.

MLA: Goodman, Al. "Mad Cow Disease Kills Mother and Son." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/09/25/mad.cow.spain/index.html.