§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with the French health authorities over exchange of information on new variant CJD. [123106]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 22 May 2000]: The Department has regular contacts with the French authorities at European Union meetings of the Health Council and its working Groups, and at meetings of EU Chief Medical officers, at which variant creutzfeldt jakob disease issues are, from time to time, discussed. The National CJD Surveillance Unit funded by the Department takes a leading role in co-ordinating the surveillance of CJD in EU member states, including through the EUROCJD group, of which France is an important member. A principal aim of this group is to ensure systematic surveillance is undertaken so that cases of CJD are identified, and then any variant CJD cases arising as a sub-set of these are picked up. In addition, the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee which advises the Government on bovine spongiform encephalopathy and CJD issues has met twice with its French counterpart, the Dormont Committee, in February 1996 and September 1998.