§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What information they have on the demographics of nvCJD, referrals to the CJD surveillance unit, sporadic CJD and dementia; whether they will provide demographic data for the United Kingdom as a whole; and whether they will also provide these data renormalised. [HL740]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)The National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit (CJDSU) monitors the characteristics of all forms of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) in the United Kingdom, to identify trends in incidence rates and to study risk factors for the development of disease. The unit undertakes epidemiological research in relation to sporadic, familial, iatrogenic CJD and the new variant of CJD (vCJD) and studies regional variations, and analyses by age and sex. CJDSU publishes all these data in an annual report, which is placed in the Library. It will publish its report for 2000 later this year.
The Department of Health publishes, on a monthly basis, figures on the numbers of cases of all types of CJD in the UK. The press release includes the number of living patients suffering from "probable" variant CJD and the number of referrals to the CJDSU. Copies are placed in the Library.