Four cases of new variant CJD on the south coast are not linked, a health report has concluded.

The report, released by the Southampton and South West Hampshire Health Authority on Wednesday, said the prevalence of the batch of cases in a small area was purely a "chance" event.

Two months ago a connection between two of the four cases of vCJD, who had both been given polio vaccines from the same batch, was ruled out.

The health authority report said that no reason for the grouping had been found but there was no risk to public health because of the cases.

'No common factor'

The research also ruled any link between the four cases and the use of butchers' knives, which had been the conclusion of the only vCJD cluster found in Britain in the Leicestershire village of Queniborough.

The report said categorically the Hampshire cases were not a cluster and that two of the four had only moved to the area shortly before symptoms were first seen.

"The statistical analysis suggested that the cases are within the number of people with vCJD who might be expected to have links to the area; therefore this group is not considered a cluster," the report said.

"No common factor linking the cases was discovered, except that two cases received oral polio vaccine from the same batch."

But the researchers said that a previous expert report concluded that it was "very unlikely" that the vaccine was a cause of the disease.

"The local grouping of cases appears to be a chance event," the report concludes.

Research welcomed

"No reason for the grouping has been identified nor has any ongoing risk to the public in the area.

"The national surveillance programme, which studies each individual case of vCJD, will continue to monitor new cases of vCJD and if any further local cases are reported the national group will consider reconvening the local investigation team."

Although the result had been expected the research was welcomed by campaigners who have lost relatives to the debilitating disease.

June Richer from the Isle of Wight, who lost her daughter, Kate, to vCJD last year, said all research into the virus is a step in the right direction.

"It's a dreadful, dreadful thing, one minute you've got a really fit or supposedly fit, healthy young person, that you've sent off to university.

"The next minute she's suffering symptoms and this goes on for six or seven months and all of a sudden you lose them."

There were 113 cases of definite or probable vCJD in the UK between 1996, when doctors distinguished it as a new form of the rare brain-wasting disease CJD, and 3 December.

By 3 December 10 patients were still alive.