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National CJD Surveillance Unit publishes 17th Annual Report for 2008

The Seventeenth Annual Report of the National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) was published today.

The NCJDSU is funded by the Department of Health and the Scottish Executive Health Department. The report looks back over the period from May 1990 (when the Unit was set up) to 31 December 2008. The report outlines the Unit’s work in the clinical surveillance of variant (vCJD), sporadic and iatrogenic CJD. The key figures on the incidence of CJD are:

• between 1995 and 31 December 2008, a total of 167 cases of definite or probable vCJD had been identified in the UK;
• only one new probable or definite case of vCJD was reported in 2008;
• here was one death from vCJD in 2008.

The Report is available on the NCJDSU website.