National CJD Surveillance
Unit publishes 16th Annual Report for 2007 and scientific report
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 13 November 2008
The Sixteenth
Annual Report of the National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) is published today. The report looks
back over the period from May 1990 (when the Unit was set up) to
31 December 2007.
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:
* between 1996 and 31 December 2007, a total of 166 cases of
definite or probable vCJD had been identified in the UK;
* only one new probable or definite case of vCJD was reported in 2007;
* there were five deaths from vCJD in 2007, the same as in 2006;
* there were 56 deaths from sporadic CJD in 2007, compared to 65
in 2006. This is comparable to the mortality rates for sporadic
CJD in most other countries.
We also welcome the publication of the Unit's scientific
report, which provides details of the current, and planned future
scientific research being undertaken by staff at the NCJDSU, in
the context of the Unit's previous research and its on-going
background surveillance.
Both reports are available on the NCJDSU website at http://www.cjd.ed.uk.
Notes for Editors
The NCJDSU is funded by the Department of Health and the Scottish
Executive Health Department.
Please contact the Department of Health press office for further
information on 020 7210 5221