HC Deb 28 January 1994 vol 236 cc421-2W
Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what scientific research is being funded by her Department into possible links between Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy;

(2) whether she will establish an independent inquiry into possible links between Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and BSE.

Mr. Sackville

Doctors are asked to report every suspected case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, (CJD), to the national Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance unit in Edinburgh, funded jointly by the Department and the Scottish Office. The unit is headed by Dr. Robert Will, consultant neurologist at Edinburgh's Western general hospital. The circumstances of each case are recorded fully and in particular all cases are examined for possible sources of transmission and any occupational factor. The unit was established in 1990 and provided reports in 1992 and 1993, copies of which are readily available to the medical and scientific community and are available in the Library.

The Government are already advised by the independent spongiform encephalopathy advisory committee, chaired by Dr. David Tyrrell FRS, which considers issues relating to spongiform encephalopathies—including CJD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

In the circumstances that every case of the very rare disease, CJD, is being fully monitored, that the medical and scientific community is alert to the need to learn more about the causes of CJD, and that the Government have in place an expert committee to give advice, it is not easy to see what would be added by holding an inquiry.

In response to recent media reports, the Chief Medical Officer stated: I am concerned about the recent spate of irresponsible scare stories in the press suggesting that people are at risk of contracting the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating beef. These sensational and alarmist reports must inevitably frighten large numbers of ordinary people—and for no good reason. The facts are clear. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is extremely rare—only one person in a million gets it—and those unfortunate people who do get it have contracted it for a variety of reasons. There is no evidence at all that eating infected meat is one of them. Newspaper reports have been commenting on the sad case of one 16-year-old girl—yet no one knows what illness she is suffering from. We do not ignore any suggestions about the causes of diseases of this seriousness, and the Government have invested considerable resources on the research issues in recent years looking at:

  • the incidence of CJD;
  • the causes of each individual case;
  • any possible links with BSE.
On the basis of the work done so far, there is no evidence whatever that BSE causes CJD and, similarly, not the slightest evidence that eating beef or hamburgers causes CJD. My position as the Government's Chief Medical Officer means that I must provide the best advice to the public, whatever the consequences. If there was any evidence that suggested a link, then I would regard it as my responsibility to bring it to public attention.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had with Ministers at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food regarding the possibility of a link between BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Mr. Sackville

Ministers and officials in both departments are in regular contact on these and other matters of mutual interest.