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NEWS: More than half of population may be susceptible to vcjd
More people could become infected with vCJD than previously thought, a new study has suggested.
Scientists from the CJD Surveillance Unit analysing a probable transmission of the disease via blood transfusion found that the genetic make-up of the patient differed from that of any other person so far found to be infected.
Writing in The Lancet, leader of the research Professor James Ironside argued that the incubation period for the human form of BSE in this group could be longer, possibly without the patient being aware of it.
Although the elderly patient received a blood transfusion from a donor later diagnosed with vCJD, there were no indications while he was alive that he had the disease. However, a post mortem after his death from a ruptured aortic aneurysm revealed the vCJD prion in his spleen and lymph nodes.
Looking at his genetic-make-up, scientists found that he did not have the faulty gene thought to be responsible for susceptibility to vCJD. The finding indicates that the proportion of the population susceptible to the condition is not 37 per cent as previously thought, but just over half.
“We have seen the rate of increase in the number of cases of vCJD decline over recent years, but this suggests we should expect to see other cases of vCJD in the future on a longer time-scale,” said Professor Ironside. “We don’t know for sure how many people will be affected, but this demonstrates that these individuals are susceptible to vCJD.”
“It’s absolutely possible that there may be a new epidemic, because the cases we’ve seen so far may only be those who are unusually susceptible, or have the shortest incubation periods,” he added.
“I’m not in the business of scaremongering, but quite clearly the idea that this problem is on the way out is unfortunately not the case at all.”
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