National CJD Surveillance Unit publishes 15th Annual Report for 2006

PRNewswire-GNN London 30 November

London, 30 November /PRNewswire-GNN/ --

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH News Release (R173 - 123) issued by The Government News
Network on 30 November 2007
The Fifteenth Annual Report of the National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Surveillance Unit was published today. The report looks back over the period
from May 1990 (when the Unit was set up) to 31 December 2006. The report
outlines the Unit's work in the clinical surveillance of variant (vCJD),
sporadic and iatrogenic CJD.  The key figures on the incidence of CJD are:

* No cases of vCJD have been identified in individuals born after 1989,
when the BSE controls were introduced.
* between 1996 and 31 December 2006, a total of 165 cases of definite or
probable vCJD had been identified in the UK;
* there were five deaths from vCJD in 2006, the same as in 2005;
* there were 65 deaths from sporadic CJD in 2006, compared to 66 in 2005.

The report is available on the NCJDSU website at www.cjd.ed.ac.uk.