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21/05/2004
Research report increases fears of vCJD incidence
More people could have been exposed to vCJD than was previously thought, according to the latest research.
Tests on 12,674 samples from appendix and tonsil tissue conducted by a team of researchers at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and the CJD Surveillance Unit has revealed that three of the samples examined had evidence of vCJD - the human form of BSE.
While researchers have warned that the figures published in the Journal of Pathology must be "treated with caution", the findings have increased concerns that more people may be harbouring the fatal brain wasting disease than was thought.
The latest "best guess" considers that around 3,800 people may have the agent that causes the disease, but this is far short of the initial fears that half-a-million may have been affected when the disease was first identified in the early 1990s.
However, the research has indicated that some people may actually be harbouring disease agent without displaying overt symptoms.
Commenting on the findings, Prof James Ironside of the National CJD Surveillance Unit said that the findings should be taken seriously, but said that the data had to be interpreted with "caution".
Since the disease was formally recognised in 1995, 141 people are known to have died from vCJD.
A much larger study by the Health Protection Agency, which will examine around 100,000 samples taken from tonsils for signs of vCJD, is expected to provide a much better estimate of the number of people affected in the UK.
A number of measures have already been put in place to help counteract any possible spread of the causal agent, believed to be a rogue protein known as a prion.
Certain blood products are sourced from the USA where the disease is unknown, and blood transfusions from persons who received a transfusion after 1980 have been banned.
(SP)
Tests on 12,674 samples from appendix and tonsil tissue conducted by a team of researchers at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and the CJD Surveillance Unit has revealed that three of the samples examined had evidence of vCJD - the human form of BSE.
While researchers have warned that the figures published in the Journal of Pathology must be "treated with caution", the findings have increased concerns that more people may be harbouring the fatal brain wasting disease than was thought.
The latest "best guess" considers that around 3,800 people may have the agent that causes the disease, but this is far short of the initial fears that half-a-million may have been affected when the disease was first identified in the early 1990s.
However, the research has indicated that some people may actually be harbouring disease agent without displaying overt symptoms.
Commenting on the findings, Prof James Ironside of the National CJD Surveillance Unit said that the findings should be taken seriously, but said that the data had to be interpreted with "caution".
Since the disease was formally recognised in 1995, 141 people are known to have died from vCJD.
A much larger study by the Health Protection Agency, which will examine around 100,000 samples taken from tonsils for signs of vCJD, is expected to provide a much better estimate of the number of people affected in the UK.
A number of measures have already been put in place to help counteract any possible spread of the causal agent, believed to be a rogue protein known as a prion.
Certain blood products are sourced from the USA where the disease is unknown, and blood transfusions from persons who received a transfusion after 1980 have been banned.
(SP)
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