THERE are so few cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in Ireland that it is virtually impossible, to carry out meaningful scientific studies on its probable cause, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
Dr John Devlin of the Department of Health was giving evidence to the Joint Committee on European Affairs in Leinster House yesterday on the problems of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and CJD.
Dr Devlin said there had been only 17 cases of CJD in Ireland, mince 1980, and the new form of the disease discovered in Britain had not been found here at all. "The incidence of CJD in Ireland, is lower than in the rest of Europe. It runs here at 0.3 per one million people and at a rate of one case per million people in the rest of Europe," he said.
Dr Devlin said that the cases of CJD in Ireland were classic sporadic cases in older people. There was no occupational link. In fact there were so few cases it was difficult to set up the case models necessary to study the disease.
He told the committee that the Department had set up an alert system with hospitals and doctors to ensure that any cases of CJD would be properly reported.
The new form of CJD in Britain was a totally different form of the disease. All medical and scientific evidence so far indicated no definite link between eating beef and this new form of the disease. The Department had established links with the CJD Research Centre in Edinburgh.
Mr Tom Mooney, assistant secretary of the Department of Health, rejected criticism by some Fianna Fail members, including Mr David Andrews, that the Minister for Health appeared to have taken a vow of silence when the crisis arose.
Mr Mooney said that this was not so. Mr Noonan had waited for scientific evidence before making any statements and he had made a full statement when the Food Safety Advisory Board had given him its report.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Michael Ferris, said the meeting had been called to give consumers reassurance that Irish beef was safe and these assurances had been given. He was disappointed that the Irish Consumers Association, which had been invited to send an expert to speak to the committee, had not been able to do so.