BBC Panorama Progamme on BSE (mad cow disease) 1997

#madcowdisease #bse #cjd

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The transcript is here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_10_11_97.txt

There is background information at - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/1372639/Streets-second-CJD-victim-rarely-ate-beef-says-father.html

On December 2007, at just 24 years of age, Andy Black died after suffering from the human form of mad cow's disease vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease).

Andy worked in the media producing/researching programmes for talkSPORT Radio, BBC, and ITV. During his terrible last days and at his request Christine Lord made it her mission to find out "Who killed my son?" and with the BBC, she produced a documentary exposing the key players at the centre of the BSE crisis whose actions and decisions led to his untimely and avoidable death.

The Documentary is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAJTr6Nxxa0

Christine Lord, as Andy's mum and a freelance journalist continues to research the scandal - and its links between school meals, (state and independent), baby food, vaccines and medicines.

Creutzfeldt--Jakob disease or CJD is a degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is incurable and invariably fatal. CJD is at times called a human form of mad cow disease, given that bovine spongiform encephalopathy is believed to be the cause of variant Creutzfeldt--Jakob disease in humans.

CJD is the most common among the types of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in humans. In CJD, the brain tissue develops holes and takes on a sponge-like texture. This is due to a type of infectious protein called a prion. Prions are misfolded proteins which replicate by converting their properly folded counterparts.

The first symptom of CJD is rapidly progressive dementia, leading to memory loss, personality changes and hallucinations. This is accompanied by physical problems such as speech impairment, jerky movements (myoclonus), balance and coordination dysfunction (ataxia), changes in gait, rigid posture, and seizures. The duration of the disease varies greatly, but sporadic (non-inherited) CJD can be fatal within months or even weeks (Johnson, 1998). In some people, the symptoms can continue for years. In most patients, these symptoms are followed by involuntary movements and the appearance of an atypical diagnostic electroencephalogram tracing. Most victims die 6 months after initial symptoms appear, often of pneumonia due to impaired coughing reflexes. About 15% of patients survive 2 or more years.

The symptoms of CJD are caused by the progressive death of the brain's nerve cells, which is associated with the build-up of abnormal prion proteins forming amyloids. When brain tissue from a CJD patient is examined under a microscope, many tiny holes can be seen where whole areas of nerve cells have died. The word "spongiform" in "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" refers to the sponge-like appearance of the brain tissue.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is a neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the disease the cow becomes unable to move. The time between infection and onset of symptoms is generally four to five years. Time from onset of symptoms to death is generally weeks to months. Spread to humans is believed to result in variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). BSE is thought to be due to an infection by a misfolded protein, known as a prion. It is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE).

Information from wikipedia:

John Selwyn Gummer was elected to the House of Commons on his third attempt, at the 1970 general election, when he narrowly unseated the sitting MP James Dickens in the Lewisham West constituency. However, at the February 1974 general election he lost the seat to Labour's Christopher Price, and failed to regain it in the October 1974 election.

In 1979, he eventually returned to the House of Commons, securing the seat of Eye, following the retirement of veteran Tory Harwood Harrison. He held the constituency until its abolition for the 1983 general election. From then until 2010 he was the MP for one of its successor constituencies, Suffolk Coastal.

He is noted for delaying a ban on beef in 1989, and for the way he attempted to feed a hamburger to his four-year-old daughter Cordelia at the height of the BSE panic in 1990, though his daughter did not eat it as it was too "hot" and she was full.

It was announced that Gummer would be awarded a peerage in the 2010 Dissolution Honours List. He was created a life peer as Baron Deben, of Winston in the County of Suffolk on 21 June 2010, and he was introduced in the House of Lords the same day, supported by his brother, Lord Chadlington, and the composer Lord Lloyd-Webber.

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