Description of Collaborative Activity: |
The Public Health Service Interagency Coordinating Committee on Human Growth Hormone (hGH) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) was established in 1985 by the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review information relevant to patients who received pituitary-derived hGH that was distributed through the NIH-funded National Hormone and Pituitary Program (NHPP). The Committee analyzes this information to determine the extent of the problem of transmission of CJD (a rare, incurable brain disease) through contaminated pituitary hGH, and to inform physicians and patients who received pituitary hGH about the health risks associated with pituitary hGH. Although NHPP’s distribution of hGH ceased when its potential to transmit CJD was discovered in 1985—and today, recombinant growth hormone that is not susceptible to CJD contamination is exclusively used for treatment—the Committee continues to maintain oversight of this issue because CJD may take years or decades to develop. The Committee includes representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and is chaired by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Director. |
Type of Collaborative Activity: |
Committee, Advisory Group, or Work Group
|
