Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

HC Deb 13 April 1994 vol 241 cc200-1W

Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will list by regional health authority how many people have died each year from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in each of the past five years;

(2) if she will list by regional health authority the dates and locations of each death from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease over the past five years, and the respective date on which her Department's Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance units were first notified of each suspected case; and if she will set out the reasons for notification not being provided earlier in those cases where notification had not been given before death.

Mr. Sackville

Table 1 shows deaths from definite and probable Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease—CJD—in England and Wales from 1989 to 1993 by regional health authority. This includes sporadic, familial and iatrogenic CJD, but excludes the small number of cases of Gerstmann-Straussler syndrome.

Dates and locations of death have not been given. CJD is a very rare disease, and this information could make it possible to identify individual patients.

Reporting of CJD cases before death started in May 1990 when the CJD unit was established. Figures are given in table 2. The unit does not collect information about why some cases are reported after death.

	19901	1991	1992	1993	Totals
Total number of cases	15	31	44	26	116
1May to December.