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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2001;285:725.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 130 words of the full text and any section headings.

British health officials announced last month that the government will give hospitals £200 million (about US $300 million) to take steps to reduce the risk of transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

The funds were allocated to enable hospitals to buy new sterilization and decontamination equipment. The government has also directed hospitals to perform all tonsillectomies with disposable, single-use surgical instruments, at an annual estimated cost of £25 million. Tonsils, as well as the appendix and certain other tissues, are known to be reservoirs for prions in people infected with vCJD.

Concern about potential iatrogenic transmission of vCJD was raised after the discovery last year that an appendix removed from an asymptomatic patient who later developed the disease contained prions at the time of surgery (Lancet.1998;352:703).