Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2004
796 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Health and Children if the CJD committee completed a tonsil study on persons treated with human growth hormone; the conclusions reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21668/04]
View answerThe CJD Advisory Group was established in September 1996 to advise the Minister for Health and Children on all issues relating to CJD, including variant CJD, vCJD, and to provide advice on particular issues referred to the group from time to time by the Minister.
During the period June 2001 to October 2003, as part of its ongoing work on the surveillance of CJD in Ireland, the group explored the possibility of undertaking a study to determine the level of pre-clinical vCJD in the Irish population. As the infecting prion protein associated with vCJD is detectable in tonsil tissue prior to the onset of clinical disease, one option considered was to undertake an analysis of tonsil samples from patients age ten to 30 years of age following a routine tonsillectomy.
Issues related to the feasibility of such a study in Ireland were considered in detail by the group. In addition to serious ethical concerns, the group concluded that, for logistical reasons, such a study would be impracticable in this country as, given the relatively low number of tonsillectomies in Ireland and the expected much lower prevalence of vCJD than in the UK population, there would not be sufficient tonsil samples available to provide meaningful results from such a study. The group, therefore, advised that a tonsil study should not take place.
