At-risk Kiwis downplay vCJD fears

By ELIZABETH BINNING

New Zealanders considered the most at risk of the human form of mad-cow disease say they are not overly worried about contracting it.

The New Zealand Government tightened border controls and health regulations after Britain's discovery of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in 1996.

Since then imports of British meat products have been banned.

People who travelled there between 1980 and 1996 have also been banned from donating blood.

But some of those "high-risk" people believe the chances of contracting it are slim, and the case of the farm worker being treated at Waikato Hospital has done little to raise their level of concern.

Chloe Rollick of Hamilton, who travelled to England in the late 1980s and then again in the late 1990s, was unconcerned about any risk to herself. She was more worried that the disease might have surfaced here.

Aucklander Megan Stunzner spent 10 years in Britain from 1988. She expects the disease would have presented itself by now.

Her level of concern has risen only slightly since the latest news.

"If it is here there is no cure. It would be waiting all that time to see if anything did happen and you can't live like that."

Waikato resident Sarah Smith was born in England and has returned there several times. She doubts she would have contracted vCJD, even though she ate meat.

"It's a little bit scary but not really a big issue. The chances of having it are not that big."