AN East Lancashire doctor is using an unlicensed drug to help people who fear they have contracted the human version of Mad Cow Disease.

And Burnley-based medical microbiologist Stephen Dealler today said millions of people could have been put at risk of contracting variant CJD -- and claimed the average adult has eaten up to 50 BSE-infected meals in his or her lifetime.

He also backed the use of a malaria treatment which has had remarkable effects after being prescribed to CJD sufferers in California.

The family of Anita Bradshaw, of Stanley Street, Accrington, who died last year, today backed the use of the drugs.

Husband, Andrew, said: "Anything which could help people should be given out. We went through a lot and I would like to think something can prevent other people going through what we did."

The human form of BSE is a degenerative condition which affects the brain and is believed to be caught through eating infected meat.

Dr Dealler said he would only prescribe Pentosan Polysulphate to people who could prove they have a high risk of contracting the disease after exposure to infected blood. He said the drug would only work for 12 months after the infection date, before the disease spread too much.

The drug was first used on mice in Scotland in 1999 and appeared to cure mice injected with scrapie -- a disease similar to CJD. Studies have suggested the treatment works on CJD

But the government's Medicines Control Agency has refused to approve the medication because it has yet to be proven effective in humans.

Dr Dealler said that due to the long incubation period of variant CJD, it could take up to 40 years to prove that it works. He said: "I am not prepared to wait that long and I will give it to people who are at risk, through no fault of their own.

"It would be immoral for them not to receive the treatment."

Dr Dealler, who is based at Burnley General Hospital, said he had only administered the treatment overseas, but would be prepared to give it to people in this area.

Any doctor could in theory offer the treatment, but General Medical Council rules stipulate only medical experts with in-depth knowledge of unlicensed drugs may administer them.

Dr Dealler said he was one of only 'a few' experts using the treatment.

He said: "People I have helped are people who have accidentally injected themselves with CJD, like scientists working on vaccines.

"I believe people who have blood transfusions should be offered the treatment as well. If they have a fear of contracting CJD and can say when they had the transfusion, they could be helped and I would help them. "

There is no known test for CJD but Dr Dealler is currently working with a London group of scientists on a diagnostic blood test for BSE and CJD.

Dr Dealler said: "The treatment has a low toxicity and there are minimal side-effects. The Medicines Control Agency should licence the drug so those who have been put at risk and could be helped can be."

Dr Dealler said: "We are taking risks and cutting corners in keeping food prices so low to feed an expanding population.

"Mistakes have been made and continue to be made and modern production methods have made food-related epidemics such as BSE almost inevitable.

"On average we have each eaten 50 BSE-infected meals and we simply do not know how many people will develop variant CJD, but some estimates put it in the millions." About 80 people are confirmed to have died from the disease -- the majority of who were under 30.

Merseyside woman Rachel Forber, 20, was diagnosed with CJD but within days of receiving the treatment, she was walking again and using cutlery.

Doctors like Alan Colchester, a consultant at Guy's Hospital, have urged caution towards all treatments, saying that none have proven to work yet.

His view is shared by Dr Carsten Korth, the lead researcher in California.

But Dr Dealler said: "I would use the malaria drug as well to help people. If there is a chance they can be helped, we have a moral duty to do so. "

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Our aim is to develop a test which confirms people do have CJD.

"We also need to have proof that drugs do work. Just because someone says a treatment will work doesn't mean it can be licensed.

"There needs to be proof it isn't harmful and it works, even if that means waiting 40 years."

David Body, the solicitor representing vCJD victims and their families, said "Anything that is seen to bring an improvement should be welcomed.

"There has to be caution though."