U.S. Suspends Hormone Sale After 3 Deaths
WASHINGTON AP--Federal health officials are ordering a temporary halt in the sale of a natural growth hormone for young people pending a new safety evaluation of the substance, a spokesman said Saturday.
Doctors at the National Institutes of Health recommended the halt after the death of three youngsters who took the pituitary gland extract several years ago, NIH spokesman Mark Stern said.
One victim contracted a rare, fatal disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob. The two others also are believed to have had the degenerative illness, which attacks the central nervous system.
Because the disease normally strikes those between the ages of 40 and 80, “it is of special concern when it is seen in young people,” Stern said. Doctors want to determine whether there is a link between the disease and the natural hormone.
About 2,000 patients take the hormone, which is supplied by the federally financed National Hormone and Pituitary Program.
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