French doctors to stand trial over growth hormone deaths

Paris - Seven French doctors were ordered Tuesday to stand trial over the deaths of 110 youths who developed Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease (CJD) after taking growth hormones in the 1980s, court officials said.

In one of France's most serious health scandals the victims, most of them children suffering from stunted growth, are thought to have developed the brain-wasting disease after being given contaminated hormones.

In the 1980s, human growth hormones -- which are now produced synthetically -- were extracted from the pituitary gland of human corpses.

The investigation launched by judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy in 1991 found that at least two hormone batches, from 1983 and 1985, were contaminated with CJD. It also detected irregularities in the way the glands were collected.

Those facing trial include senior doctors from the France-Hypophyse association, which collected the glands, the Paris' Pasteur Institute, which used them to produce hormones, and the central Paris hospital pharmacy.

They are charged with manslaughter and aggravated fraud. The trial is scheduled to start late this year.

Jeanne Goerrian, whose 24-year-old son Eric died of CJD in 1994 after taking growth hormones and who has been campaigning for justice ever since, welcomed the decision to bring the case to trial.

"I hope the trial will help us to understand what happened, to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Now is the hour of truth," she said.

CJD is one of a family of so-called prion diseases in which a rogue protein proliferates in the brain, sparking symptoms such as poor coordination and slow speech, eventually leading to forgetfulness, dementia and death.

A total of 110 people are believed to have died of the disease in France between 1990 and 2007 after taking growth hormones.

Agence France Presse

It`ll be interesting to see how things work out with this trial. Too often it seems that the medical profession is too quick to `look after its own` but now this has become a court case hopefully justice will prevail.