A spokesman said the government feared that British victims "could run into hundreds."
British victims of the war are commemorated in the College Chapel.
At this service this evening we recall especially the British victims, and we think of their families, their friends and colleagues.
The Foreign Office said the British victims' next of kin had been informed and were being provided with consular assistance.
Most people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are elderly, but the British victims were all young, which alarmed public health officials.
At the eastern end of the garden there is a small memorial dedicated to the British victims of the September 11 attacks.
Many families of British victims are relatively affluent, and they may be in line for sizable awards, even in the millions of dollars.
There were, after all, dozens of British victims in the World Trade Center attack.
Up until 1943, these were grim tales, presenting British victims; after that, a more heroic note increased.
Paula Hounslea was a British victim of an unsolved murder.