{"id":243,"date":"2011-03-07T20:15:35","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T20:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/case-reports\/?p=243"},"modified":"2011-03-07T20:16:40","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T20:16:40","slug":"man-with-vcjd-dies-after-a-long-and-public-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/case-reports\/2011\/03\/07\/man-with-vcjd-dies-after-a-long-and-public-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Man with vCJD dies after a long and public illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Simms from Belfast has died of variant CJD. He had survived 10 years with the disease and his case has been widely discussed in the media.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-northern-ireland-12667709<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially, doctors thought he had multiple sclerosis. But Jonathan’s illness was later confirmed as vCJD. He was given just months to live.<\/p>\n

After a court battle, the family won the right to use the experimental drug pentosan polysulphate in January 2003.<\/p>\n

It had not previously been tested on human beings.<\/p>\n

At that time, his father, Don Simms said the decision to give their son the drug was a “calculated risk based on 20 years of science”. …<\/p>\n

Speaking after Jonathan’s death, Mr Simms said: “How it came about was so sudden, unexpected. We are a family who are left devastated.<\/p>\n

“The times when we did expect it to happen, he fought through it.<\/p>\n

“However, we feel that he himself had grown tired and was unable to fight any more.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“There have been 173 cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in the UK, as of 5 July 2010, as a result of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy epidemic.” de Marco MF, Linehan J, Gill ON, Clewley JP, Brandner S. Large-scale immunohistochemical examination for lymphoreticular prion protein in tonsil specimens collected in Britain<\/a>. J Pathol. 2010 Dec;222(4):380-7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Simms from Belfast has died of variant CJD. He had survived 10 years with the disease and his case has been widely discussed in the media. http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-northern-ireland-12667709 Initially, doctors thought he had multiple sclerosis. But Jonathan’s illness was later confirmed as vCJD. He was given just months to live. After a court battle, the […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMan with vCJD dies after a long and public illness - BMJ Case Reports blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/case-reports\/2011\/03\/07\/man-with-vcjd-dies-after-a-long-and-public-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man with vCJD dies after a long and public illness - BMJ Case Reports blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jonathan Simms from Belfast has died of variant CJD. 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