Written question asked by Tony Marlow (Conservative), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 January 1997. It was answered by Lord Horam (Conservative) on Monday, 20 January 1997 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: If he will list by month and year for each of the last five years the number of (a) diagnosed and (b) newly-suspected cases of the new strain of CJD; to what extent the trends enable him to make assessments of future numbers; and what assessment he has made of likely future numbers. - Including ref to the latest figures on the number of confirmed definite and probable cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease published in a Department of Health press release on 6 January 1997, copies of which are available in Library.

Answer: Mr. Marlow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by month and year for each of the last five years the number of (a) diagnosed and (b) newly-suspected cases of the new strain of CJD; to what extent the trends enable him to make assessments of future numbers; and what assessment he has made of likely future numbers. [11719] Mr. Horam: The latest figures on the number of confirmed definite and probable cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United Kingdom, including the new variant, were published in a Department of Health press release on 6 January 1997, copies of which are available in the Library. Figures on suspected cases are not available. The classification of cases changes as the course of the disease proceeds and a definite diagnosis is usually possible only after death. In the past, about half of the cases referred to the unit have turned out not to be CJD. There is still very little known about new variant CJD, including important information on the incubation period, the route of infection, the level of exposure required to cause disease and the role of genetic susceptibility, so it is likely to be some years before we have sufficient information to make firm predictions of future numbers of cases.

Secondary information