Thursday 25 September 2008

Can Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) be "passed on" from Mother to Child?

In short, the answer to the question was most probably no, or is it maybe?

The science in this area remains gray in nature, although as of today, there has been yet another twist in this scientific saga.

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A number of media reports have appeared today ("n" of 39 at the point of writing) in relation to a case in question in Spain.

Whilst not the first (Court Injunction in place - one wonders why), this is the latest confirmed case of vCJD having occurred twice in the same family. Mother and son. Both have sadly passed away.

I am privy to two "releases" which I have been allowed to share on the web.

The first comes from the Spanish CJD Registry and the second from the UK's National CJD Surveillance Unit.

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Let us spin back to the Queniborough cluster in the UK, reported in 2001.

None of the victims were related.

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As has now been reported, in Spain, two of the four victims were related.

Moreover, if as Collinge et al has suggested many times, the incubation period of vCJD is in excess of > 40 years, why did the younger Spaniard succumb and die before the older (and related patient) did?

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Some food for thought here.

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