Mike Hancock News
As researchers warn in Lancet of second "tidal wave" of human BSE...
As researchers in the current edition of Lancet Neurology say there could be a second “tidal wave” of people contracting vCJD – the human form of mad cow disease, Portsmouth MP, Mike Hancock is to help a mother from Southsea in Portsmouth whose son died of the disease, hand in a petition calling for action direct to 10, Downing Street. Christine Lord’s son, Andy Black died exactly a year ago from vCJD on 16th December 2007.
Meanwhile answers from the Health Minister in Parliament have revealed that up to 35,000 people could be carrying the agents, called prions that cause vCJD without having yet developed the full-blown disease. It is possible that they could infect other people through blood transfusions. And it is also possible that people with different genetic make-ups take longer to develop the full-blown disease than those that have got it so far. Research in Papua New Guinea has shown that it has taken up to 50 years for some people there to get a CJD-like disease called Kuru. A study in the current issue of Lancet Neurology concludes: “to put it prudently, a second wave of CJD with a longer incubation time might hit these shores, but we do not know whether this will be a tidal wave or just an imperceptible ripple.”
Mike Hancock and Christine Lord will hand in a petition to Downing Street on Thursday 18th December 2008 calling for the Prime Minister to release documents relating to the evidence that she has gathered in her investigations into what caused her son’s death and that of the 167 other vCJD victims. She also wants the Prime Minister to commit to screening the blood supply to try and stop another potential epidemic.
Christine believes that Andy is likely to have contracted vCJD from contaminated meat. Earlier in the year, Christine produced a BBC South documentary on vCJD and her fight for justice for her son. She has established a website – www.justiceforandy.com on which she writes a blog about her campaign. She also recently went to South Korea to brief members of their parliament on vCJD. Korean MPs are petitioning for her to be invited to speak to the UN. Mike Hancock has also backed Christine’s work with a motion in Parliament supporting her campaign.
Mike Hancock said: “The precautionary principle should operate here. And the Government should look at steps that it can take to make the blood supply safer such as screening and prior filtration. I have been pressing them to do so through questions in Parliament. There are still major questions about what happened in 1980s and 1990s about BSE and vCJD. There are still lessons to be learnt from this and there are still explanations to be had from the Government and meat suppliers as to exactly what happened then. The Government needs also to look at current safety issues – particularly the safety of the blood supply as otherwise we may well have further unnecessary deaths from vCJD. It should also take the current warnings by scientists in the Lancet very seriously indeed. I hope that the Prime Minister will respond positively to what Christine is urging and take action.”
167 people have died from vCJD in the UK, over 80% of the total worldwide and the disease is continuing to claim victims – five people a year have died every year for the past 3 years
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