Seven French former medical officials went on trial on Wednesday after a 17 year-long investigation into contaminated growth hormones that caused the death of more than 100 people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The doctors and pharmacists face maximum terms varying from 3 to 10 years if convicted. They face charges of aggravated deception, manslaughter and causing unintentional injury.
The case, which carries echoes of a separate scandal over HIV contaminated blood transfusions in the 1990s, centres on a programme to treat children affected by short stature with growth chromones extracted from human pituitary glands.More than 100 people on the programme died after being contaminated with the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which attacks the brain, causing rapid dementia and death.
The connection between Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseae and the pituitary gland was established in 1990. The United States withdrew the hormone in 1985 following three deaths.
Reuters
3 comments:
Yes, I saw several reports just over a week ago about this.
17 years is a rather long time for an investigation is it not?
The link between CJD and HGH was actually made around 1985.
Apart from France, most countries changed over to synthetic equivalent in 1985. For whatever reason, the French waited until 1988.
This is one of the fundamental issues at stake here.
French former medical officials went on trial on Wednesday after a 17 year-long investigation into contaminated growth hormones that caused the death of more than 100 people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Post a Comment