New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: the epidemic that never was

摘要

In 1996 a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was described and tentatively linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy as a possible cause. Since then a number of studies have been undertaken in an attempt to confirm ingestion of the prion that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy as the cause of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. What was initially a speculation has now evolved into orthodoxy among the medical profession in the United Kingdom if not the whole of Europe, although in the United States the question of causality remains more open.