§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why they are unwilling to state the genetic makeup of the infant born to a mother with new-variant CJD when this information is readily available from other sources. [HL2030]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathIndividual case details are regarded as confidential between patients, their families and the healthcare practitioners involved.
§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What validation has been carried out of the methodology being used in the new-variant CID tonsils and appendix surveys; and what rate of (a) false positives and (b) false negatives they currently expect in the results. [HL2031]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathValidation of the methodology and data arising from the tonsil and appendix surveys falls to the Medical Research Council/Department of Health steering group for studies of detectable abnormal prion protein. That 163WA group will consider these issues at its future meetings. It is not possible at present to provide any meaningful forecast of the rate of false positives or false negatives that may, or may not, arise.
§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they believe that the public will be better prepared for the eventuality of a sizeable epidemic of new-variant CJD if they (a) are not aware of developments in research into the disease or (b) have all available information offered to them at all stages. [HL2033]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathDetails of government funded research projects currently under way into all transmissible spongiform encephalopathy issues are available to the public through the Medical Research Council website. In accordance with standard procedures supported by reputable scientific journals, all data resulting from government-funded research projects must be validated and peer reviewed. Results are then published once that process has been completed.
§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are aware of any children born to mothers who have, within three years of the birth, shown clinical signs of new-variant CJD, and, if so, whether any of them are displaying signs of a neurological condition that might be caused by a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy; and, if so, how many and whether they are homozygous or heterozygous at codon 129 of the prion protein. [HL2057]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathAll reported cases of progressive intellectual or neurological deterioration in children are investigated for potential variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease and details of any suspect cases are passed to the National CJD Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh. No definite or probable cases of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease have been found in children under the age of 13.