50 patients have lived through CJD scares
In 1999, St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin had to track down 49 patients who underwent stomach investigations using a gastroscope previously used on a young man subsequently diagnosed with variant-CJD, the form of the disease that comes from eating infected meat.
Prof Michael Hutchinson, consultant neurologist at St Vincent’s, said yesterday that none of those patients had gone on to develop vCJD in the 14 years since the contamination incident.
That will come as some reassurance to patients who may be among the group identified at Beaumont as potentially being at risk, although the incubation period for CJD and vCJD can be longer than 14 years.
The incident has rocked Beaumont, the country’s main neurological hospital and also a key transplant centre, which rarely finds itself at the centre of negative publicity. The hospital could be exposed to a massive compensation claim if any of the people involved in the current scare went on to develop CJD which is incurable and usually causes death within a year.
Health Minister James Reilly said he was very concerned about what had emerged from Beaumont, but he would not be drawn into a discussion about the incident. “This is a very serious diagnosis for the individual concerned. I want to respect their privacy. I don’t want to say anything that could make a very difficult situation worse,” he said.
Sinn Féin called for a review of hospital procedures relating to CJD in the wake of the scare and said Hiqa, the health standards agency, should take charge of it.
Party health spokesman, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said it was very distressing for people who have had surgery at Beaumont to learn that some of them faced the danger of potential CJD infection.
“It is worrying that the CJD infection of the original patient in question only came to light after surgery, and so the standard procedure for special sterilisation of potentially CJD-infected instruments was not used. The minister for health should ask Hiqa to initiate an immediate review.”
The HSE stressed Beaumont acted swiftly once CJD was suspected, and said the hospital was continuing to take advice from experts in Ireland as well as Britain which has far greater experience of dealing with CJD partly due to its higher population but also its more serious vCJD outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s.
