- LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is planning to test appendix and tonsil specimens
that are routinely kept at hospitals after removal for evidence of the
human form of mad cow disease, the Health Department said on Thursday.
The government decided on the tests after a marker for the illness, known
as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD), was found in the appendix
of a man who later died of the condition, a Health Department spokeswoman
said. ``They are not certain at the moment whether this means anything.
There is a possibility that it might, and they want to look at it,'' the
spokeswoman said. British media speculated that if similar evidence was
found in appendix and tonsil specimens taken from other people, it could
provide a possible way to screen people entering hospital for organ removal
or even the entire population. But the Health Department cautioned there
was no discussion of mass screening at the moment, because the tests had
not yet been performed and officials did not know whether they would find
anything. After the man's death, doctors found a rogue protein in his appendix
that was associated with nvCJD. The man, a coastguard, had his appendix
removed in Devon, south-west England, in September 1995, eight months before
displaying any signs of nvCJD and nearly three years before he died. At
this stage only existing specimens being kept in hospitals would be tested
and that testing would be done anonymously. Any later testing of people
entering hospital for organ removal would be done only on the basis of
the patient's prior consent, the spokeswaman said. She did not know how
many samples would be tested, saying details were being worked out by the
government's Medical Research Council. Around 44,000 appendectomies and
800,000 tonsillectomies are carried out each year in Britain, but ``obviously
they are not going to test them all,'' she said. The move is the latest
in a series of measures taken by the government to combat nvCJD, a killer
disease which has taken 27 lives in Britain. The symptoms include dementia,
aggression and loss of bodily control. A connection is suspected between
nvCJD and mad cow disease, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), and
the British government has taken a number of steps to remove potentially
infective beef from the food chain.
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