International Worker No 239, Saturday, September 13, 1997 Coroner confirms BSE link as five more CJD cases recorded By Keith Livesey A deputy Doncaster coroner has recorded a verdict of misadventure on Matthew Parker, 19 who died in March after suffering from the new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The coroner, Fred Curtis, said on the weight of scientific evidence there was on the balance of probability a link between the teenager's infection and his having eaten BSE infected meat. Two other previous inquests have given the same verdict. Lawyers representing 16 parents of nvCJD victims have now written to Agriculture Minister Dr. Jack Cunningham to call for an immediate independent inquiry. The inquest was held amidst growing concern that the number of cases of nvCJD looks set to escalate. Over the last two months, five new cases have been announced. Mrs Mandy Minto 27, a mother of two from Sunderland ,Tyne and Wear, died in August after falling ill eight months ago. She was a European Judo champion when she was 18 and held a black belt at 14. Susan Carey, 36, died five months ago, but her death was only reported in August. Susan was from Mersham near Ashford. Her death brings the total of CJD deaths in the Kent area to six. Three of these deaths have been within 20 miles of the Canterbury Mills rendering plant, which has been accused of dumping infected BSE liquid waste into a well near Godmersham. Donna Marie McGivern from Coatbridge near Glasgow has become the youngest victim of the new variant CJD at 15. Doctors have said she will die within months. She can no longer walk, can barely talk and must be washed, fed and dressed. The latest victim is 36 year old Chris Warne of Ripley in Derbyshire. He was diagnosed as having the disease three weeks ago and now needs round the clock attention at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham. Perhaps the most worrying case is that of Clare Tomkins, 24, from Tonbridge in Kent who is still receiving treatment at St Mary's Hospital in London. Clare has been a vegetarian for 12 years This has raised fears of a long incubation period bringing the possibility of a large number of deaths running into the next century and speculation about the possibility of infection through dairy produce or environmental factors. Human time bomb These cases have raised fears of a "human time-bomb", particularly amongst the youth. A leading expert on CJD, Professor John Collinge of St Mary's Hospital, continued to blame infected beef and spoke of a growing complacency over the possibility of a major epidemic: "It may only involve hundreds, but it could be Europe-wide and become a disaster of biblical proportions". The Ministry of Agriculture has commissioned a report into how dangerous it was to eat burgers, pies and kebabs that contained infected beef in the 1980s, food mainly eaten by young people. A report by the British Medical Journal drew attention to the fact that a large number of the nvCJD victims were under 40 years of age and noted an increase in the incidence of CJD amongst dairy farmers. Just a week after this report came out five people in Kentucky, America, were believed to have contracted CJD by eating the brains of squirrels. All the victims seen over a three year period had died within one year of the onset of CJD symptoms. Professor Collinge's fear that BSE/CJD is a Europe-wide problem was supported by a report claiming that mainland European Union countries had only reported one-sixth of their BSE cases. Research findings were published in The Veterinary Record, the official journal of the British Veterinary Association, based on BSE from cows exported from Britain and not any cases in the respective European national herds. Figures showed that more than 55,400 cattle were exported from Britain to other EU countries for breeding between 1985 and 1989 -- when exports were halted to curb the spread of the disease. If these cattle had remained in Britain, an estimated 1,642 of them would have been likely to have contracted BSE. Yet European countries had admitted to a total of only 285 cases, most of them in Switzerland. In Germany, the expected number of cases by now would be 243, yet the number so far officially reported has been just five. Spain has reported none, where 54 have been expected, Portugal has reported 61 instead of 262 and the Irish Republic has reported 188, as opposed to the anticipated number of 911. Scientists fear the huge number of apparently unreported cases may lead to BSE spreading in Europe as meat from infected animals could be used in animal food -- leading to even more cases which will again go unreported.

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