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A case of out of sight, out of mind I guess. Definitely will try and catch that on iplayer if I can.
Not watched this programme yet
The main problem it causes is in healthcare. There is no screening test for it, anyone could have been exposed to it (ever licked a stamp?), and if you use a surgical instrument on someone who turns out to have it then the next people who you use it on have a substantially increased risk of developing it (autoclaving doesn't destroy the prion).
This basically means everyone getting a surgical procedure needs to have a risk screening done, and every instrument used on every patient needs to be traceable, and that information held for a very long time
Just as other Governments did with miner's lung diseases, asbestos, contaminated factor 8, cigarettes etc.
That's why it's in Politics IMO.
Given the big slow down in the rate of new cases (2 in 7 plus years), I can't see there being too many new cases. It's possible that there are people who are now in their 80s who have had it, and it's just being treated as a more routine case of dementia, and not diagnosed. Even if that is the case, I suspect the number would still be in single figures annually. You would expect a similar incidence in people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and that doesn't seem to be happening.
It was devastating for his family and friends as he was a fit and active chap in his mid-50s (didn't look or act it) and was a landscape gardener. Very sad
This paper is one of the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)68930-7/fulltext
The summary says there were 11 patients between 1996 and 2004. That's a big reduction from 200 per year - around 90%.
With the last known victim in 2009 (at the latest), which is 40 years after the cannibalism stopped, we should be near the end of vCJD in the UK. It's now 30 years since animal protein was banned in bovine feed. There have only been 2 deaths from vCJD in the UK since 2011.
The French were really bad about BSE. My Dad worked in agriculture all his working life, and was friends with one of the local vets. This guy spent some time in France in the 90's and went out with a French vet on his rounds. They saw a cow that had all the classic symptoms of BSE, and the vet told the farmer that the cow had the shakes and he should send it off to the slaughterhouse.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1466162/French-mad-cow-disease-cases-went-undetected.html
That article says that there 300 times more cases in France than the officially recorded number.
That seems to be a policy that is not set as a result of a political or economic agenda, but from a genuine concern for people's welfare.
The incubation period for CJD is unknown and could, in theory, be very long. It could be a timebomb. Or it might not be. But our European friends are still being very cautious about it.