THE Department of Health has confirmed that it is awaiting the results of a post mortem examination on the body of a woman who is thought to have died of Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease.
A spokeswoman for the Department said last night that as the person involved was elderly, it was highly unlikely that she was a victim of a new form of CJD, called nvCJD (new variant). Medical experts believe, she said, that "if the woman died of CJD, and that has not even been established, she is highly unlikely to have died from the new form of the disease because of her age."
The new strain of the disease has been identified in 17 cases in Britain in patients under 40.