Fears for up to 20 Beaumont patients over CJD exposure

Up to 20 patients being treated at Beaumont Hospital may have been operated on using instruments which were used on a patient with the lethal degenerative neurological disorder Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease (CJD).

The HSE is checking other patients’ records to see which underwent procedures using the same instruments as the CJD sufferer in a two-week period between that person being operated upon and their CJD diagnosis.

Normal sterilisation processes are not enough for CJD and items need to go through a more stringent regime or be destroyed.

A HSE spokeswoman confirmed that Beaumont is receiving advice from the Irish Panel on TSE (CJD) and experts in Britain.

“This group is assessing the circumstances of this case to determine what, if any, risk may exist for other patients. Further information will be available once this group has completed its assessment,” the spokeswoman said.

The HSE did confirm there are inherited forms of the disease caused by infection via medical or surgical treatments (iatrogenic CJD). However, it said iatrogenic CJD is very rare.

CJD is rare — there were 30 cases here between 2005 and 2011 — and is one of a group of prion diseases, which affect humans and animals. Prion diseases exist in different forms, and are currently untreatable and ultimately fatal.