Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (Hansard, 6 November 1997)

§ Jacqui Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made about the future incidence of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [14092]

§ Ms Jowell
On 15 September 1997 the Chief Medical Officer announced the formation of a sub-group of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) with the following remitTo assess the information about the epidemiology of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and develop as far as possible advice on trends in the disease".
The sub-group will have as an early task an assessment of what information will be needed to make soundly based estimates of the future incidence of the disease. However, on present indications it will be three to four years before they are in a position to do this.
In the meantime it remains too early to make confident estimates of the likely number of cases.

§ Jacqui Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has recently evaluated on the links between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and new variant CJD. [14094]

§ Ms Jowell
Two research papers were published inNature on .2 October 1997—"Transmissions to mice indicate that new variant CJD is caused by the BSE agent" by M. E. Bruce and colleagues based at the Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh and "The same prion strain causes nvCJD and BSE" by A. F. Hill and colleagues based at Imperial College School of Medicine at St. Mary's, London.
The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) considered these findings and concluded that they provide convincing evidence that the agent which causes Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is the same as that which causes new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (nvCJD). The Committee also stated that the most likely explanation of the cases of nvCJD to date remains exposure to BSE before the introduction of the Specified Bovine Offals (SBO) ban in 1989.
SEAC also concluded that the necessary measures to protect public health and animal health are in place and saw no need for any changes in the light of these new findings.