Japan confirmed its first human case of mad cow disease Friday following the death of a man who had symptoms of the fatal brain-wasting illness. Health Ministry officials and experts from a ministry panel on the disease were holding an emergency meeting to determine whether the man had contracted the disease by eating infected beef. Masahito Yamada, a panel expert, said it was likely the man contracted the disease while living for one month in Britain — where mad cow first surfaced — in 1989.
