Scientist Claims Triumph Over CJD
July 4 2001 Newcastle Journal
A North-East scientist claims he has been vindicated in his fight to get a life-saving screening programme set up against a disease which has claimed more than 100 lives.
Medical researchers in Israel have developed a test that identifies those most at risk from New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD) - the human form of mad cow disease.
Dr Harash Narang, from Jesmond, in Newcastle, says the Jerusalem test is the same as the work he has been doing for the last seven years. He now wants it made available in Britain.
Scientists linked to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) supported the Jerusalem research by providing samples, but did not provide any funding for the work.
Lone battle to uncover truth on killer disease
For nine years NorthEast scientist Harash Narang has been battling for recognition of his work on the link between BSE and a fatal brain disease.
Long before the Government admitted links between CJD and BSE in 1996 he was warning of the risks of eating contaminated meat.
The former microbiologist with the Public Health Laboratory Service in Newcastle first took an interest in the issue after examining the brain of a human CJD victim in 1970 and by the end of 1987 he had seen six more.
Dr Narang developed his first diagnostic test in 1987, but the Jesmondbased scientist was opposed in some quarters.
An instruction from the then Health Minister Stephen Dorrell that he was 'not to be involved or seen to be involved with BSE/CJD work' resulted in a ban by his employers on his research.
In 1992 he was suspended. He has continued to work with the families of CJD victims.
That same year he developed a urine test to detect the presence of BSE, or mad cow disease and, in 1994, claimed to have used it to identify the presence of new variant CJD in humans.
Since then he has campaigned for the Government to embark on a screening programme to prevent those affected from giving blood.
In September 1995 he won the support of the family of CJD victim Jean Wake, a 38yearold from Washington.
They agreed that Dr Harang could take specimens from her before Mrs Wake's death to prove the presence of CJD.
He had to go to America to find a laboratory willing to allow his tests to be carried out, but the results proved positive and were confirmed by a post mortem when she died two days later.
In 1997 he was given £175,000 to carry out an evaluation study on his urine test to give early warning to CJD.
He tested 23 people countrywide, who were suspected to have the disease and 20 tested positive.
He has come up with a theory that eating meat infected with scrapie - the equivalent of BSE in sheep - could protect against the bovine form of the disease.
Dr Narang has pressed the Government to concentrate its efforts on producing a vaccine against BSE and a test to discover if animals are incubating the disease.
His intentions to do the work himself were halted in 1999 when a research project at Leeds University was scrapped by the Governmentbacked Medical Research Council over claims he had failed to produce detailed plans of his work.
Last March he claimed if he received official permission to continue his studies he would know within 18 months whether the research was successful.