REINER: CLAIMS ON MAD COW DISEASE IN CROATIA FALSE

ZAGREB, Feb 9 (Hina) - The Croatian Health Ministry on Tuesday dismissed as false claims made by "La voce del popolo", a daily in Italian published in Rijeka, on two cases of infection with the mad cow disease virus in Croatia. Croatian health institutions have reported two cases of infection with a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJS), which is linked with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or the so-called mad cow disease. One case was registered in Zagreb and the other in Rijeka, but it was impossible to confirm with absolute certainty that either of the two cases was linked with the mad cow disease, because all forms of spongiform encephalopathy are very similar, said a Health Ministry statement, signed by Minister Zeljko Reiner. "Since the number of those registered with the disease is even smaller than the expected incidence of earlier known forms of CJS, we believe that the spreading of a new form of the disease, which is linked with the mad cow disease, in Croatia, is out of the question", said the statement. According to the statement, Croatia has already prohibited import of beef and beef products from countries where cases of mad cow disease were reported. "La voce del popolo" today ran a report saying that two women in Croatia had been infected with the mad cow disease virus and that one of them, from Labin (the northern region of Istria), hospitalised in Rijeka, was in critical condition, while the other one, from Crikvenica (central Dalmatia), had been admitted to a Zagreb hospital. The daily stressed that the information published was official. According to current data, not a single case of infection which could be directly linked with the infection with the bovine spongiform encephalopathy virus (which is transmitted from cattle to man), has been reported in Croatia. (hina) mm rml