Whiskey and burkey are right - as yet there is no well established assay for this disease other than a brain biopsy, which can not be conducted until after death.

However, a chap called Dr. John Collinge from the University of London is developing a biochemical test to screen living patients by analysing their (extracted) tonsils well before they develop other symptoms. Basically the tonsils are lymphonal tissue and the prion (infectious agent) collects and replicates there. You can use a technique called a Western Blot to detect prion in the isolated tissue.

At the moment they only intend to screen the general population because there could be anywhere between 1000 and 1,000,000+ total cases (noone has any realistic idea). It is certainly not something I would want to know I was going to get in 20 years.

There is a lot of money in this, in the UK, at the moment!

[This message has been edited by james (edited 06-28-1999).]