French health officials announced on Thursday, 3rd November, that 15 cases of the human form of BSE (or more widely known as mad cow disease), vCJD, have been identified in France since it first emerged in 1996. 13 have died of definite or probable vCJD: six men and seven women. One died in 1996, one in 2000, one in 2001, 3 in 2002, 2 in 2004 and 5 in 2005. The victims had an average age of 36 (between 20 and 58). Among them 5 lived in the Paris Ile de France region and 8 outside Paris. None showed any risk factors identified by other known forms of CJD.
