Drug battles human form of mad cow disease

From Macleans on "February 02, 2005:

Experimental treatment may have brought man back from the brink of death

As Canadians confront the possibility that the discovery of a fourth animal infected with mad cow disease is just the tip of the iceberg, there is welcome news from Britain of a possible treatment for the human form of the disease."

A 20-year-old man has been brought back from the brink of death after experimental treatment with pentosan polysulphate, a decades-old drug that has been used as a blood thinner and bladder medication.

Jonathan Simms, from Belfast, has been receiving the drug for two years and is now the only patient known to have survived three years after diagnosis of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Patients usually die within 18 months of diagnosis.

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