Extent of misclassification of death from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in England 1979-96: retrospective examination of clinical records
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The increase in the number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) recorded at the end of 1998 was genuine and not down to better awareness and detection of the disease as has been previously claimed, report researchers in this week's BMJ.
At the end of 1998, the UK CJD surveillance programme recorded a rise in the number of cases of variant CJD, but it was unclear whether this was a real increase or a result of better ascertainment of the disease. In order to clarify whether better identification of deaths from CJD was the cause of the increase, Dr Azeem Majeed from the Office for National Statistics along with colleagues from the National Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease Surveillance Unit and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined the medical records of people aged 15-44 who had died in England during 1979-96, from neurological disorders that could have been confused with CJD.
The authors found no previously unsuspected cases of CJD in the records they analysed and say that this means the surveillance programme is unlikely to have missed a significant number of cases. Majeed et al conclude that the recent increase in cases of variant CJD is real and not due to better identification of the disease.
Contact:
Dr Azeem Majeed, Medical Epidemiologist, Office for National Statistics, London
Tel: +44 (0)976 157607
azeem.majeed@ons.gov.uk