The Health Service Executive is reportedly set to investigate a possible cluster of vCJD cases on the Dublin-Wicklow border.

Health officials are reportedly playing down fears of a cluster of vCJD cases on the Dublin-Wicklow border.

A coroner in Dublin has reportedly called for an investigation into a possible cluster of variant CJD cases on the Dublin-Wicklow border.

A British support group for victims of CJD today welcomed the news that a blood test for the proteins that cause BSE has been developed, raising hopes that people could be screened for the human form of the condition.

Michael O’Farrell and Harry Walsh

Health officials investigating the country's first case of variant CJD believe the victim contracted the brain disease from eating a hamburger.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern moved quickly to quell public fears today after the country’s first case of the fatal brain disease variant CJD was diagnosed in a Dublin hospital.

Ireland's first case of variant CJD has been confirmed at a Dublin hospital.

Ireland’s National CJD Advisory Group is due to meet today to discuss the fallout from the death of a British man who contracted CJD from blood donated years earlier.

THE risk of Irish people contracting the human form of mad cow disease is declining, according to the Blood Bank.

The parents of a Belfast teenager dying from the human form of BSE were mounting a new legal fight today to have radical surgery performed in Northern Ireland.

The Blood Transfusion Service Board intends to extend the safeguards put in place last year to prevent the spread of CJD, the human form of mad cow disease.

THE Government is considering suing the drug firm at the centre of the TB vaccine controversy after a series of contamination and production blunders.

PARENTS’ confidence in the State’s vaccination policy hit a new low yesterday after it emerged that around 30,000 children received an ineffective jab to protect against TB.

A new case of new variant CJD - the human form of Mad Cow’s Disease - has been diagnosed in the North.

An upturn in the number of cases of the human form of mad cow disease is not a blip but a "sustained pattern", says a scientist investigating the illness.

The British victims of the human form of mad cow disease are waiting to hear if they will be offered a potential treatment for the condition.

McDonald's has showed how CJD and the foot-and-mouth crisis has hit home as the fast food chain unveiled a slump in second-quarter profits.