A 69-year-old woman has become Hong Kong's 13th victim of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The Hospital Authority confirmed she died of the disease on January 5. She had been admitted to the emergency department of Tai Po Hospital last October.
Suffering from serious loss of memory, her condition deteriorated as she was treated.
The first reported case in Hong Kong was in April 1996. 'They are all sporadic cases and none has any risk factors. There is no cause for undue alarm,' a Health Department spokesman said.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob is rare degenerative brain disease with an unknown cause. Scientists believe it can be caused by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, believed to have passed to some humans through beef products in Britain. Patients usually suffer confusion and loss of memory and muscle co-ordination.