Fears of vCJD cluster dismissed
Fears that a cluster of the debilitating brain disease vCJD had been uncovered on the east coast were today dismissed after an investigation revealed three cases were not linked.
Officials at the Health Service Executive had been called in to examine whether victims of the human form of mad-cow disease in south Dublin and north Wicklow were connected.
But the HSE insisted today there was no evidence of a cluster.
A HSE spokeswoman confirmed that the three vCJD cases were not linked, as had been queried recently by Dublin County Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty.
“Specialists in Public Health Medicine in the Dublin area have looked into any possible link between the cases and have concluded that the cases aren’t likely to be connected,” she said.
Dr Geraghty had requested the Department of Health probe the three cases to see if there was a geographical link.
The Coroner had told an inquest on January 10 that he was aware of a young man from Bray who was suffering from the degenerative disease, bringing to three the number of vCJD cases linked to the east coast.
The inquest of Jason Moran, 24, from Shankill, who died last June from vCJD, also heard that the first Irish victim of the terminal illness, Offaly woman Kay Turner, had family links to Ballybrack.
Ms Turner had family living about five miles from Mr Moran, but her death has been attributed to contamination in the UK – as she lived there during a high risk period.
Department of Health officials had claimed that the possibility of a cluster of vCJD was slim.
And the HSE spokeswoman said the Executive, the National Expert Group on vCJD and the National vCJD Surveillance Unit at Beaumont Hospital will keep details under review as part of its routine monitoring.
