Written question asked by John P Smith (Labour) on Tuesday, 31 October 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 November 2000. It was answered by Yvette Cooper (Labour) on Monday, 13 November 2000 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what was the incidence of misdiagnosis of new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.

Answer: Mr. John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the incidence of misdiagnosis of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [136277] Yvette Cooper: No patient diagnosed as "definite" or "probable" vCJD by the National CJD Surveillance Unit has ever been found to have been suffering from another disease. Since March 1996 the Unit has had a significant number of suspected cases referred to them that, on further investigation, have turned out not to be vCJD cases.

Secondary information