Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases
BMJ No 7105 Volume 315 Press Releases Saturday 16 August 1997 Embargoed: 00.01 Hrs 15 August 1997 UK time
Reasons for increase in CJD remain unknown...
The overall incidence of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD) in the UK has increased in recent years, says a paper in this week's BMJ. But the largest increases have been in people over 70, which may reflect better diagnosis than any real change in incidence, say the authors. They found significant excesses of cases of CJD among workers on dairy farms, but say that there is a similar incidence in other European countries where BSE is rare or absent, suggesting that farmers are at increased risk of CJD for reasons other than exposure to the agent which causes BSE. However, the existence of a group of comparatively young CJD patients with unusual neuropathological changes remains unexplained. The results of studies of transmitting human CJD to mice and the future incidence of CJD in the UK and elsewhere will be important in judging whether the causative agent of BSE has infected humans, they conclude.
Contact:
CJD Surveilance Unit
Tel: 0131 332 2117
In an accompanying commentary, Dr Sheila Gore argues that the age-related exposure of CJD patients under 40 to the BSE-causing agent should not be overlooked. Young people tend to eat more burgers and kebabs, she says - for example, in 1986-7 these foods were eaten by 45% of 16-24 year olds but by only l 3% of those aged 50-64. Many of the 'new variant' CJD cases have occurred in people who were under 40 at the onset of illness. [Age-related dietary exposure to meat products from British dietary surveys of teenagers and adults in the 1980s and 1990s] In a separate paper, Dr Gore and colleagues analyse evidence from a dietary survey of 2197 people aged 16-64, carried out in 1986-7. In addition to the striking age differences related to kebab and burger eating, the youngest age group were also more likely to eat meal pies and pasties. An on-going study, to which 19,000 men and women aged between 45-74 and living in Norfolk have been recruited, also shows a similar pattern. 27% of the youngest age group (45-54) consumed burgers at least once a week, compared with 12% of those aged 65-74. Improved categorisation of data - for example, to differentiate pork from steak and kidney pies and types of sausages and burger - would be helpful in future surveys, say the authors.
Contact: MRC Biostatistics Unit
Tel: 01223 330 368 or Prof Nicholas Day Tel: 01223 330 300
In a letter, Alan Earl-Slater, senior lecturer in health economics at Keele University, argues that the new scientific steering committee of the European Union should publish the evidence to support the proposed ban on drugs containing ingredients derived from beef, sheep or goats. "Who is going to benefit from the lack of evidence based decision making: the millions of consumers of meat, jellies, sweets and drugs?? he asks. Contact:
Dept Medicines Management
Tel:01782 583 562
Larger babies are less likely to develop cardiovascular problems in later life, reports a study in this week's BMJ. The authors studied the records of 121,700 female nurses, and found that birth weight and the risk of non-fatal cardiovascular disease in adult women were inversely related for both coronary heart disease and stroke. The association was driven by the small proportion of women at the extreme ends of birth weight, report the authors. If there is a difference in cardiovascular risk among the 87% of women with normal birth weight, it seems to be minimal, they say. The association is also largely independent of established risk factors for heart disease and stroke such as cigarette smoking, ethnic group and socioeconomic group. Although the study suggests that cardiovascular benefits might arise from measures to reduce the incidence of low birth weight, it is not clear which of the many environmental and genetic factors that determine birth weight might also affect cardiovascular risk. Further research is needed to identify whether there is a specific mechanism that affects both birth weight and risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood, they conclude.
Contact:
Harvard Medical School
Tel:
001 617 421 6011
Another paper reports a study of 4,300 Danish conscripts, whose birth weights were correlated with their army IQ test results at age 18. The authors found that those who had had a birth weight of up to 4200g increased their test scores in paraIlel with their weight, but there was a slight decrease above a birth weight of 4200g. Fetal growth does seem to influence adult cognitive performance, they conclude, and this could have important consequences for care of the mother during pregnancy.
Contact:
Aarhus University Hospital
Tel:
+45 8942 31 86 or
+45 8942 3075
Embargoed: 00.01 Hrs 15 August 1997 UK time
Please contact Public Affairs Division for the text of the paper & the authors for further comment For further information, please contact:
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