NR APPI
AU Cooper,M.
TI CJD victim's wife calls for public inquiry
QU PA (PA News) Thu, Aug 7, 1997
VT
The wife of an engineer who died from the new strain of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease - the human form of mad cow disease - has called for a public inquiry into the BSE crisis. Keith Humphreys, 42, of Birmingham, died of the new variant of CJD on July 15, his widow Carol disclosed today.
The 37-year-old nurse, who lives in the Northfield area of the city, said: "I am not bitter but I do feel that the public have a right to be informed about the dangers of contaminated beef. "Farmers are being compensated for the loss of cattle but people who have lost loved ones are not. It does not seem fair."
The death certificate on Keith, an engineer with Travel West Midlands, states that his death was caused by "Pneumonia as a result of New Variant CJD."
Carol, who said her husband died a slow and painful death, added: "There are no words of comfort anybody can offer me. I had to watch somebody I love turn from a man who was always the life and soul of the party into somebody who was in constant pain and torment."
Mrs Humphreys said too little was being done to help CJD victims' families, adding that she believed Keith contracted the disease by eating beef between 1986 and 1989. Mr Humphreys family began to notice something was wrong in the summer of 1995 when he became very forgetful. In March last year a specialist told Mrs Humphreys her husband had CJD and had six to eight months to live.
"I just think a public inquiry is the only way forward - it's the only sensible thing that can happen because things can't be left as they are now."
IN Keith Humphreys aus Birmingham starb im Alter von 42 Jahren am 15.7.97 an der neuen Variante der Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Krankheit. Bereits im Sommer 1995 hatte er begonnen, sehr vergeßlich zu werden und im März 1996 wurde die Diagnose CJD gestellt.
AD Matthew Cooper
SP englisch