Public summary of the meeting on
18th March 1999

The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) met at the offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tolworth on 18 March 1999.

The Committee conducted its regular review of research findings and epidemiological information on BSE and vCJD. The Committee agreed that, "vCJD" should now be used in preference to "nvCJD" in line with current practice in many scientific journals.

The Committee noted that the total number of vCJD cases in the UK was 39. The Committee reviewed the work of its epidemiology sub-group and noted that it was still too early to draw conclusions about the likely final size of the outbreak of vCJD from the number or pattern of occurrence of cases reported to date.

The number of cases of BSE continues to decline within the 95% confidence limits of the predicted numbers.

The Committee had been asked by the Chief Medical Officer to continue its consideration of the possible risks of vCJD transmission associated with surgery. During the meeting the Committee received a presentation on the risk assessment model of vCJD transmission via surgical instruments developed by the Economics and Operational Research Division of the Department of Health. The Committee commended the usefulness of the model which will allow the effects of new information and possible risk reduction measures to be assessed rapidly.

The Committee was also brought up-to-date with the outcomes of the meetings of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens/SEAC Joint TSE Working Group and its sub-group on surgical instruments. SEAC fully endorsed the sub-group recommendation for further urgent work on the decontamination of surgical instruments and diagnostic equipment to reduce the risk of prion contamination. In the meantime SEAC recommended that discussions with surgeons and the Medical Devices Agency on the greater use of disposable instruments for certain surgical procedures should continue.

The Committee reviewed progress in dealing with the BSE epidemic and the measures in place to protect public health. It noted the possibility that the ban on the sale of beef for human consumption from cattle over 30 months old could in due course be amended. It agreed that any change to the Beef Assurance Scheme age limit or eligibility criteria should be addressed as part of any such review. It concluded that further information and analyses would be needed to inform any decision and asked the Secretariat to set this work in hand for the next meeting. The Committee confirmed that this was an issue which would require careful consideration and that it could take several meetings to develop its advice. In the meantime it recognised the public interest in the review of the over thirty month rule and would support and wish to be involved in any MAFF initiatives to encourage public discussion of the issues involved.

The Committee reviewed its public statement on the link between vCJD and BSE which had originally been issued in March 1996. It noted further research had shown that BSE and vCJD were caused by a closely similar prion strain, and concluded that vCJD was an acquired prion disease caused by exposure to BSE or a BSE like agent. When it made its original statement about the first 10 cases in March 1996 the Committee referred to exposure before the SBO ban. After discussion the Committee recognised that not all new cases would necessarily relate to exposure before the SBO ban.

The Committee endorsed the report of its sub-group on sheep (91KB), which was published on 14 March.

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 3 June 1999.

SEAC
April 1999