Both the Department of Health and senior medical sources have denied weekend reports that the State's first indigenous case of vCJD has been linked to the eating of hamburgers. Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent, reports.
Medical sources closely involved with the case said they were surprised at a report on Saturday claiming that experts treating the young man with vCJD "had pinpointed the meat he has consumed as the cause of the disease".
They told The Irish Times that it would be impossible for any epidemiological investigation to trace a person's eating habits over a 15-year period.
"The timescale between eating infected beef and developing symptoms of vCJD, at between 10 and 15 years, means that neither the victim nor his family can remember his exact eating habits," one source said.
It is understood, however, that the man has followed a normal balanced diet, and was not an especially high consumer of fast- food or beef products.
In response to claims in the Irish Independent and the Sunday Times that the Department of Health was carrying out an investigation into the man's eating habits, a spokesman said yesterday: "The Department could not, or would not, be specifically able to pinpoint the source of infection at this time."
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said it wanted to categorically deny a report on Saturday that the victim had contracted the fatal brain disease from eating imported beef.
The young man remains seriously ill in a Dublin hospital. Because he never received a blood transfusion or underwent major surgery, both of these potential routes of infection have been ruled out by doctors.
The doctors acknowledge that he "almost certainly" contracted vCJD from eating infected beef, but say it will be impossible to ever pinpoint the exact source of the BSE-infected meat.
A risk analysis by experts at Imperial College London and Dublin's Beaumont Hospital has established that the Republic is most likely to see one case of vCJD caused by eating infected beef.
The upper limit of risk is estimated at 15 possible cases.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture confirmed that it was being sued by Irish Edible Oils, which claims that the Department failed to inform the company that animal fats it was storing on the Department's behalf carried a risk of BSE infection.
"The Department is vigorously contesting the claim and there is no basis for such a claim," the spokesman said.