Figures suggesting over 7,000 people in Britain could be at increased risk of the human form of BSE may be an under-representation of the infection, it was claimed today.
Scientists have estimated 120 people per million could be at increased risk of developing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Based on the British population of just under 60 million, this could mean 7,200 people are at increased risk of vCJD.
But the director of the National CJD Surveillance Unit warned the tests might be an under-representation of infection.
Prof James Ironside told the BBC2 Newsnightprogramme last night the tests used were not sensitive enough to pick up all positives for human BSE.
Prof John Collinge of the Institute of Neurology in London told the programme he believed if the research had been done on tonsils using the latest techniques there could be four times as many positives.
The research, published in the British Medical Journal, is the first estimate of the number of people who could have pre-clinical vCJD.
PA