Mad cow, mad cow, what ya gonna do

  • New Scientist looks at trials of a drug thought to hold potential in treating vCJD. The trial will look at an anti-malarial drug (of all things) that seems to have some promise in the whole mad cow arena.
  • The Guardian provides a handy-dandy Q&A format article on BSE/vCJD—giving, among other things, a straightforward, helpful explanation of the CJDs (Sporadic, Variant, etc.). Curiously, the article does not mention the “mad cow” appellation, assuming—probably—that by now people have heard the acronym BSE knocked around often enough to know it’s mad cow disease.

(New Scientist: “Trial of treatments for vCJD to launch,” by Andy Coghlan [August 5, 2004]; Guardian: “vCJD,” by James Meikle [August 6, 2004])