It's effect on people is extremely hard.
I had an uncle to die of CJD back in 1991. While not the same thing as Mad Cow (vCJC), its symptoms are almost identical.
"Like Burdick's family, Kate Foster, of Killeen, Texas, had to wait weeks for doctors to recognize CJD when her 62-year-old husband became ill. Marvin Foster's symptoms surfaced last May, shortly after shoulder surgery. A diagnosis didn't come for two months.
A former paratrooper, Marvin Foster was a strong, vibrant man. But for five months before he died on Jan. 24, he couldn't walk, talk or swallow."
To watch such a strong healthy man waste away like that came as a total shock for the family. It's a very terrible ailment.