Previously, researchers had supposed that only 40 percent of the population was at the risk of disease vCJD, believed to have been passed from cattle to humans through eating meat infected with BSE during the 1980s and 1990s, says The Scotsman.
Scientists found that 161 cases of vCJD reported in UK , occurred in people with genotype MM shared by 40 percent of the population and was supposed to be limited to group with that genotype only.
But now they have discovered a dormant infection in someone of the MV genotype, which makes up 50 percent of people and two dormant cases in patients of the VV genotype, making up the other 10 percent of the population.
Thus the discovery fears that everyone is at risk of being a carrier of the infection. Professor James Ironside, of the National CJD Surveillance Unit at Edinburgh University, ruled out the possibility of long incubation periods as a probable cause for not detecting the disease earlier.
The investigation has raised concerns over the safety of blood products and surgery as the carrier individuals could infect others through blood donation or surgery thus making vCJD self-sustaining, Professor Ironside said.
