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Mad cow disease in NSW

ABC

ABC

A former financial officer at AFL club Sydney Swans has been given just weeks to live after being diagnosed with a rare strain of mad cow disease.

Nobody knows how Frank Burton became infected with the disease that has landed him critically ill and in isolation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

The hospital confirmed to the ABC it was caring for a patient with the disease and said the patient’s condition posed no risk of infection.

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According to NSW Health, Mr Burton was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease – a rare, degenerative disease of the brain that was not linked to the consumption of meat and occurred in one in a million people per year in Australia.

It has no treatment or cure and the disease is fatal within weeks or months after the onset of symptoms.

The 63-year-old was rushed to hospital a number of weeks ago when he lost all control of his limbs and fell over on a Sydney footpath.

Former sports journalist Mr Kogoy told the ABC that Mr Burton was told on Friday he had three months to live, but now that time frame has been accelerated to two or three weeks.

“[He has gone] from having a head of dark, straight [hair] and black beard, to totally white, totally white,” Mr Kogoy said.

“A total loss of speech and total loss of movement in his limbs in a matter of weeks and days.”

Mr Kogoy said current board members of the Sydney Swans had visited Mr Burton at an isolation wing of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

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