HC Deb 21 May 1991 vol 191 cc440-1W
Miss Emma Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps his Department is taking to establish a counselling service for those individuals who may have been infected with Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease by the use of contaminated growth hormone, and the families of those individuals;

(2) what steps his Department has taken to notify all those individuals who may have been infected with Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease from injections of contaminated growth hormones of the nature of their position;

(3) if his Department has successfully identified all those individuals who may have become infected with Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease from injection of contaminated growth hormone.

Mr. Dorrell

Those at risk were the 1,908 patients treated with human pituitary derived growth hormone in clinical trials conducted between 1959 and 1985. From records kept of these trials, 1,699 patients have been identified as currently resident in Great Britain. Of these, 80 per cent. have been traced and their general practitioner notified. We expect that a substantial number of the remaining patients will be traced over the next few weeks.

The GPs are asked if they wish to advise their patients of the risk or if they would prefer the approach to be made by hospital specialists. If the doctors requested further help with counselling we would consider what additional assistance we could provide.

Miss Emma Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what regulations and practices have been instituted since 1985 to ensure that those infected with diseases such as Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease through the use of contaminated products are informed at the earliest possible opportunity of their condition.

Mr. Dorrell

These instances are rare and the complex clinical and ethical issues that determine how best to proceed need to be considered in each instance. Generally, we believe that the doctors involved in treatment are best placed to decided when and how to convey such information.

Miss Emma Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many individuals have been infected with Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease by the use of contaminated growth hormone.

Mr. Dorrell

At present, there is no specific test for Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in the living patient and diagnosis can be confirmed only in post-mortem histological examination. Post-mortems carried out on 110 patients treated in the trials of human-derived growth hormone show that six died with CJD. I am advised that the great majority of the remaining patients treated in the trials are unlikely to have been infected.

Miss Emma Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department has successfully identified all those batches of growth hormone that were infected by Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Mr. Dorrell

On the basis of current knowledge it is not possible to identify which batches of human-derived growth hormone used in the clinical trials conducted between 1959 and 1985 were infected with Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. Human-derived material has not been used since 1985, when a genetically engineered hormone treatment became available.