§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the available evidence on the connection between bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob dementia in humans. [4934]
§ Mr. HoramThe independent Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee provides the Government with an expert assessment of the scientific evidence as it develops. There is no current scientific evidence that BSE can be transmitted to humans or that eating beef causes CJD.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence he has on changes in the level of incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease over the last 10 years. [4935]
§ Mr. HoramThe national Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance centre in Edinburgh investigates the526W incidence and epidemiology of CJD cases in the United Kingdom, paying particular attention to occupation and eating habits, to establish whether there has been any change in the pattern of the disease since the advent of BSE. There continues to be no evidence of an emerging CJD epidemic. The United Kingdom incidence of CJD is comparable to countries in Europe and elsewhere, with no or very little BSE.
Information on the incidence of CJD in the UK since 1985 is contained in the fourth annual report of the national CJD unit published on 5 October 1995, copies of which are available in the Library. The latest provisional figures for 1995 so far indicate that the incidence will be lower than in 1994.