A woman in the Netherlands has been diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease, according to health officials.

The Dutch Health Ministry said the case was reported by Rotterdam's Erasmus Medisch Centrum, the national surveillance center responsible for monitoring diseases.

Authorities in the Netherlands are currently investigating the case in order to determine if the disease may have been transmitted to others. However, a statement by the Dutch health Ministry said the woman, whose identity was withheld, was never a blood or tissue donor.

The Health Ministry believes the 26-year-old woman being cared for in a hospital in Utrecht contracted the disease by eating tainted beef.

She likely became infected before 1997, when the Netherlands introduced tight restrictions on the importation of beef products.