February 8, 2002
		Italy's First Suspected Case of vCJD Suspected The Italian Health Ministry announced the country's first suspected case of the human form of mad cow disease on Tuesday. The ministry said the tentative diagnosis was made after tests in Italy and Britain, where the vast majority of the cases of varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been found. The Italian news media sayd that the victim lives in Sicily. Varient CJD appears to be spread by eating meat that has been contaminated by mad cow disease, or bovine spogiform encephalopathy. Italy has discovered 53 cases of the disease in cows since January 2001.