Harash Narang

Harash Komar Narang
Narang in May 2002
Born
Harash Komar Narang

(1942-01-13)13 January 1942
Punjab, India
Died31 May 2008(2008-05-31) (aged 66)
Hexham, Northumberland
Alma materUniversity of Newcastle
Known forResearch linking vCJD and BSE
PartnerSushila
Children1
Scientific career
Fields
Workplaces
Signature

Harash Komar Narang (13 January 1942 – 31 May 2008) was a British Indian microbiologist and clinical virologist. He is best known for his early and controversial research into the transmission of spongiform encephalopathies, specifically his views over the link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, a connection he asserted years before it was acknowledged by other scientists.

During his tenure at the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) in Newcastle, Narang challenged the prevailing prion theory, proposing that the infectious agent causing TSEs was a single-stranded DNA virus he termed a 'nemavirus'. He developed a diagnostic "touch impression" technique and later a urine test, which he claimed could detect the infection in both animals and humans. Narang frequently alleged that his findings were suppressed by government officials to protect the agricultural industry, and he became regarded by some as a whistleblower over the safety of the human food chain during the United Kingdom BSE outbreak.

Narang's methodologies and claims faced significant scrutiny from wider scientific concensus. The Medical Research Council (MRC) discontinued funding for his diagnostic tests after concluding they could not be independently validated, and the PHLS dismissed him in 1994, which was later ruled by an unemployment tribunal as being the result of cuts to Department of Health funding. Although his theories regarding the 'nemavirus' were never widely accepted, his testimony was heard during the Phillips Inquiry, which investigated the government's handling of the BSE crisis.

Early career

Narang initially trained as a zoologist studying plant parasitology in the late 1960s.[1] After graduating, he worked from 1970 until 1977 as a researcher for the Medical Research Council (MRC) at Newcastle General Hospital, where he became interested in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).[2]

Narang later recalled his concerns over cattle being fed meat and bone meal, during an inspection of an abattoir in the early 1970s.[3] He noted the risks of scrapie, a neurodegenerative disease found in sheep, to enter the food chain.[3][4]

Public research

Public Health Laboratory Service

Narang joined the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) as a microbiologist in August 1977.[5][6] He was granted leave in 1985, and studied in the laboratory of Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who had won a Nobel Prize for his research into kuru, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.[2][7] As the United Kingdom BSE outbreak unfolded, he subsequently revisited the institute in 1988 and 1989, and claimed to have developed a diagnostic test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). He described it as a 'touch impression technique' using electron microscopy to analyse brain surface impressions, for detecting BSE in abattoir meat.[2][7] Critics have argued that the test was originally developed by June Almeida and abandoned due to limited reliability.[2]

Narang also described the infectious agent as a 'nemavirus' - a single-stranded DNA fibril with a protein coat - rather than the prion protein theory which was ultimately accepted as scientific consensus.[6][8] He would go on to set up a non-invasive urine test which examined concentrated samples of urine with an electron microscope to identify specific structures and fibres.[6][7][8] In 1989, his application for funding to help develop the technique was turned down by the Ministry of Agriculture.[9]

In 1990, Narang became one of the first researchers to argue that there was evidence that BSE could cross the species barrier and infect humans.[10][11] After publishing a letter in The Lancet about his diagnostic test for BSE and CJD,[12] his work on TSEs attracted the support of David Clark MP, the Shadow Minister of Agriculture who raised the issue in a parliamentary debate.[13] Newcastle businessman Ken Bell also donated £20,000 to help fund Narang's research.[14]

Disciplinary Hearings

Narang faced a disciplinary inquiry into his work after staff reported a lack of safety protocols in the laboratory to the Health and Safety Executive, who issued a report which found a number of violations. The separate inquiry concluded that his work needed to be peer reviewed by other scientists.[2]

A second disciplinary action was set up for misconduct after he impersonated a ward doctor when conducting surveillance on northern hospitals for human BSE cases in the summer of 1992.[2]

From 1993, his work was under trial at The London Hospital by three scientists, overseen by Professor Jeffrey Almond, who served as a virologist at the University of Reading and was a member of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC). The trial found no single strands of DNA. Narang later alleged that the PHLS had forced him to go there and described the findings as "a waste of time and effort".[2]

In August 1994, he was dismissed from his position as a chief scientist in the PHLS.[5] His case for unfair dismissal was taken to an industrial tribunal, who ruled in favour of the PHLS, as there was a 2 per cent cut in Department of Health funding.[5] He then worked as an independent virologist under Ken Bell International in Newcastle.[2][14]

Independent research

Stephen Churchill, a 19-year-old from Devizes was the first recorded death from Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) in June 1995. Narang visited Churchill's family in the wake of his death.[2]

Following the death of Jean Wake in September 1995, it was reported that Narang's test proved that she had died of CJD.[15] In February 1996, he again asserted a link between BSE and human Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease after the death of 21-year-old Peter Hall. Narang had been invited by Hall's parents to conduct the urine test, which indicated a positive result for the 'BSE virus', and they subsequently called for the government to conduct more tests.[16][17] Narang also joined the Northern CJD Group, a local pressure group.[16]

In July 1996, Narang, along with the mother of Churchill and the parents of Hall, delivered a petition with 10,000 signatures to the House of Commons, which called for more CJD tests.[18] Critics accused Narang (along with two other scientists arguing that BSE could infect humans; Richard Lacey and Stephen Dealler) of promoting conspiracies and scaremongering for personal gain.[19][20] Narang claimed that the government had covered up the full extent of the BSE scandal to protect the UK's beef industry.[21]

By June 1997, he was investigating the possibility that BSE could spread to chickens, after reporting neurodegenerative symptoms in livestock at farms he had visited.[22] In September 1997, he issued a writ, with support from relatives of CJD victims, at the High Court in London alleging that his former employer, the PHLS, had made him redundant because of his belief in a link between BSE and CJD.[5][23] In 1998, he repeated his claims at the BSE public enquiry.[24][25]

By August 1999, the Medical Research Council had abandoned efforts to develop a reliable test, based on Narang's work, to detect BSE in cattle.[8][26] During the six-month trial, the National CJD Surveillance Centre in Edinburgh had supplied urine samples, but Narang had used unfiltered distilled water, which contaminated the samples with bacterial strands, which were confused with the microscopic fibres he believed were characteristic of a positive result for BSE and CJD.[6] Afterwards, Narang continued to reassert his belief that TSEs were caused by a virus.[27]

Following the Phillips Inquiry (1998–2000), the BSE inquiry report established that MAFF had failed to provide adequate funding and resources to support Narang's efforts to develop a test, and noted that it had worsened allegations that the government was trying to cover up the BSE crisis.[28][29]

Later career

Narang later worked as a senior research associate at the University of Leeds, where the trials for his BSE test had taken place.[30]

In July 2000, Narang argued that genetically modified (GM) material could persist in the environment without being naturally broken down.[31] He later described genetic modification as an "ecological disaster", and called for a ban on GM foods.[30] He was one of over 800 scientists who signed an open letter addressed to governments and supra-national bodies calling for such restrictions.[32]

During the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, Narang wrote twice to Prime Minister Tony Blair over concerns that a vaccine being developed at the Pirbright Institute was using live viruses of the disease.[33]

Political candidacy

At the 2001 general election, Narang announced that he would stand as an independent candidate for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend against the agriculture minister, Nick Brown.[34][35] His election campaign was funded by his former employer, Ken Bell.[36]

During the campaign, he likened himself to Martin Bell, and pledged to scrap university university tuition fees.[36] On 4 June, Narang headed a convoy of tractors through the constituency.[37] He placed fifth with 563 votes (1.7%).[38]

Death and legacy

Narang suffered a cardiac arrest and died on 31 May 2008, aged 66.[39] He was survived by his partner and their son.[40]

Publications

  • Death on the Menu: Families Devastated by 'Mad Cow' Disease Reveal Their Tragic Stories. H H Publishers. 1997. ISBN 978-0953076413.
  • The Link: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease / Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - The Manufactured Disease. H H Publishers. 1997. ISBN 978-0953076406.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leakey, Colin (8 January 1999). "Mad cow chronicles". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Green, Emily (15 August 1996). "A cow and bull story?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 August 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. 1 2 Watts, Mark (31 March 1996). "The birth of BSE". The Independent. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Wiśniewski, Henryk M.; Narang, Harash K.; Terry, Robert D. (February 1976). "Neurofibrillary tangles of paired helical filaments". Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 27 (2): 173–181. doi:10.1016/0022-510X(76)90059-9.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Arthur, Charles (26 September 1997). "Sacked CJD scientist sues laboratory service". Independent. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Connor, Steve (11 August 1999). "How a scientist obtained thousands for a BSE test he could not prove". Independent. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "Phillips Inquiry". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 363. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. 15 February 2001. col. 503.
  8. 1 2 3 Connor, Steve (10 August 1999). "Fiasco as officials abort bid to prove BSE 'wonder test'". The Independent. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  9. ↑ Cummings, Louise (2010), "Learning the Lessons of the BSE Crisis", Rethinking the BSE Crisis, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 193–221, doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9504-6_8, ISBN 978-90-481-9503-9, PMC 7120640
  10. ↑ Newsinger, John (3 September 1996). "The Roast Beef of Old England". Monthly Review. 48 (4): 21. doi:10.14452/MR-048-04-1996-08_3. ISSN 0027-0520. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015.
  11. ↑ Castle, Stephen; Watts, Mark; Cohen, Nick; Routledge, Paul; Cathcart, Brian (24 March 1996). "How ministers had to eat their words". The Independent. Retrieved 25 August 2026. Dr Harash Narang, a leading microbiologist who used to work for the Government's Public Health Laboratory Service, was one of the first to claim a link between BSE and CJD.
  12. ↑ Narang, H.; Perry, R. (17 March 1990). "Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by electron microscopy". The Lancet. 335 (8690): 663–664. doi:10.1010/S0140-6736(90)90453-C.
  13. ↑ "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 183. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. 17 December 1990.
  14. 1 2 Oxford, Esther (10 January 1996). "Mad cows? Not out of Africa". The Independent. Retrieved 25 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "CJD claim". The Herald. 6 November 1995. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  16. 1 2 "Tests call as scientist claims CJD killed man". The Herald. 15 February 1996. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  17. ↑ Martin, Peter (18 February 1996). "The Mad Cow Deceit: FOURTH TEENAGER IS KILLED BY CJD". Daily Express - Special Report.
  18. ↑ "Call for new BSE and CJD tests". The Herald. 11 July 1996. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  19. ↑ Seguin, Eve (August 2000). "The UK BSE crisis: Strengths and weaknesses of existing conceptual approaches". Science and Public Policy. 27 (4): 293–301. doi:10.3152/147154300781781931.
  20. ↑ Arthur, Charles (23 March 1996). "Whistleblowers claim they warned of threat for years". The Independent. Retrieved 25 August 2026.
  21. ↑ Pearl, Daniel; Rose, Matthew (22 March 1996). "Beef disaster in U.K. raises oversight issues". Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition.
  22. ↑ Lean, Geoffrey; Richardson, Hazel (7 June 1997). "'Mad cow disease' may have spread to chickens". The Independent. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  23. ↑ Hornsby, Michael (14 July 1998). "Scientist's 'torture' over BSE". The Times. No. 66253. p. 6. Retrieved 26 August 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ↑ "'Victimised scientist claims higher head count for CJD deaths". Farmers Weekly. 13 July 1998. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  25. ↑ Patton, Lucy (23 September 1998). "The offal truth on BSE meat scandal". The Herald. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  26. ↑ "Search for BSE test abandoned". Farmers Weekly. 11 August 1999. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  27. ↑ Narang, Harash K. (October 2000). "BSE/CJD: chemical or biological". Chemistry & Industry. 19: 630.
  28. ↑ Jones, Kevin Edson (2017). "BSE and the Phillips Report: A cautionary tale about the uptake of 'risk'". In Stehr, Nico (ed.). The Governance of Knowledge. Routledge. pp. 171–198. ISBN 978-1-138-12497-4.
  29. ↑ Farrar, Steve; Davis, Caroline (3 November 2000). "Following that Whitehall herd instinct". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 26 August 2026.
  30. 1 2 "Australian Insurers Wary of GM Crops". www.iatp.org. Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 19 November 2001. Retrieved 25 August 2026.
  31. ↑ Narang, Harash (27 July 2000). "GMOs: Genetically Modified Food and Animal Feed". Institute of Science in Society. Retrieved 25 August 2026.
  32. ↑ Wanzala, Wycliffe (27 March 2013). Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.4959.9605.
  33. ↑ Wintour, Patrick; Vidal, John (6 August 2007). "Human error may have led to outbreak". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 August 2026.
  34. ↑ Wainwright, Martin (23 May 2001). "Portillo goes Latin as Lady sings for the blues". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  35. ↑ "UK Independence candidate enters election". Whistle Bay Guardian. 24 May 2001. p. 3.
  36. 1 2 Collinson, Robert (1 June 2001). "Optimists meet apathy on trail". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  37. ↑ "Tractors convoy in epidemic row". The Northern Echo. 4 June 2001. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  38. ↑ Morgan, Bryn (18 June 2001). "General Election results, 7 June 2001" (PDF). House of Commons Library.
  39. ↑ "Mad cow scientist dies". BBC News. 3 June 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  40. ↑ "Tributes To Scientist Who Established Human Link To BSE". The Journal. 3 June 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2026 – via www.thefreelibrary.com.
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