Variant CJD has brought a new and frightening dimension to a problem which many had assumed, wrongly, was a matter for the British and for farmers.
A decade and a half after mad cow disease was first identified in the UK, we are getting a glimpse of just how widely our lives will be affected by the fight against vCJD in humans, which appears to have the same cause as mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE).
This week in Britain a £200 million overhaul of hospital sterilisation facilities was announced. The move came after the government's expert committee on BSE said there was a theoretical risk that vCJD could be passed on through surgical instruments. Disposable instruments are to be used for all tonsil surgery.
The pre-Christmas announcement that one British donor out of more than 60,000 who contributed to a pool from which a polio vaccine - later administered to Irish children - was made is another example of this. The donor developed vCJD, bringing into doubt the safety of the vaccine product.
There is a threat to the blood supply if people who lived in the UK at the height of the BSE crisis are prevented from giving blood here. Unless donations from other people can be substantially increased, patients could die for want of blood transfusions.
The EU has banned the feeding of meat and bonemeal to animals for six months from Janu ary 1st, to allow rendering plants all over Europe time to install the best technologies for making the product safe. The Irish plants already have these safe technologies, which allows 17 pig producers to feed meat and bonemeal to pigs under licence, and we export the product.
Some European farmers are turning to maize as an alternative source of protein for their animals. This may well reduce the supply of maize in Africa with disastrous consequences for some people there.
The chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Dr Patrick Wall, has already had a call from a former colleague in Tanzania complaining that people in Africa will starve because of the EU policy.
At the heart of all this are the fears about vCJD. A distinction needs to be made here. There are two types of CJD. There is classic CJD which has been known for over a century and the cause of which remains a mystery. It mainly affects people over 65, bringing on rapid dementia and loss of control of movement. People normally die from it after about five months.
Variant CJD, however, was unknown until 1996, when it was identified publicly in the UK. It affects young people, who suffer disturbed behaviour, loss of balance and difficulties in walking. They survive on average for about 13 months. It is generally accepted that it is caused by the same agent that causes BSE.
The year's major scare about vCJD was the recent revelation in the UK that some scientists had known since 1990 that BSE could cross from one species to another but covered up the information. In the intervening period the public was told that beef was safe for humans.
Beef is, of course, safe so long as it isn't contaminated, as Dr Wall is quick to point out. The source for vCJD, he believes, will turn out to be mechanically recovered meat. This is produced by removing meat residues from bones, turning it into a sort of slurry and then using it for pies, burgers and sausages.
It was not until 1996 that the British finally banned this practice. The British predilection for pies may have put large numbers of people there at risk of vCJD.
So far 88 people in the UK have developed vCJD, including one in Northern Ireland. There have been two cases in France and one in the Republic. This last case was in a person who lived in the UK and who, it is thought, contracted the disease there.
It may be that the largest incidence of vCJD will occur in Britain - certainly the statistics point in that direction. But given the number of Irish people who have come back from Britain we can also expect to have cases in this State.
If this occurs it will be against a backdrop of intense public distrust of State agencies, especially in the light of the Lindsay tribunal hearings on transmission of HIV and hepatitis through blood products.
That is a large part of the reason why so many people were worried and upset at the announcement about the possible contamination of a polio vaccine administered in 1998. The experts and the Department of Health and Children said the risk was zero, or practically zero.
But we live in an age in which the experts have to work harder to convince people that everything is all right. And the vCJD story, as it develops, will do nothing to lessen public doubts. Worse, it may absorb resources which would be better used elsewhere.
Because of its novelty and the fears it generates, vCJD may get funding which might be better spent on reducing road deaths, deaths from heart disease, smoking and so on.
But vCJD's menacing unpredictability feeds into our fears about food and medicines, and that is what makes it so different.