To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of CJD have been confirmed in each of the last 10 years. [7377]

The latest figures on the number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, including new variant CJD, in the United Kingdom were published in a Department of Health press release on 7 July 1997, copies of which have been placed in the Library.The numbers of deaths recorded from sporadic CJD in England and Wales has increased from about 10 per year at the beginning of the 1970s to about 35 per year in the 1990s. No increase in the annual number of cases in Scotland and Northern Ireland is evident since 1985 (when figures became available). Most of the increase has been in the over 70 age group. The increase is thought to be most likely due to improved ascertainment rather than a real increase in the incidence of disease.