Implications of CJD data need to be clear before release

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7262.701

BMJ 2000;321:701 ( 16 September )

Letters

Implications of CJD data need to be clear before release

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Reports surrounding the analysis of tonsillar and appendix tissue for evidence of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(vCJD)¹ have highlighted the difficulty faced by scientistsin presenting complex and emotive medical information to the public.Great care is needed, especially when the implications of resultsareuncertain.

The discovery of prion protein in an appendix removed from a patient in Torbay in 1995 before the onset of clinical signsof new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) raised the possibilityof diagnosing cases before patients are aware that they are infected.A programme of testing several thousand pathological specimensof appendixes and tonsils was started. The intention was to testwhether nvCJD prion protein might be present in any of them and,if it was, to assess its significance.²

Preliminary results from this study were recently released to the press. No cases were found in any of the 3000 samples oftonsil and appendix . . . [Full text of this article]