Question: What are the treatments for National Hormone and Pituitary Program (NHPP): Information for People Treated with Pituitary Human Growth Hormone (Comprehensive Report) ?
Answer: The HHS has identified 29 cases of CJD among the nearly 7,700 people in the United States who received NHPP pituitary hGH. None of the 29 people who got CJD began treatment with pituitary hGH after 1977, the year that the NHPP began producing pituitary hGH in a laboratory (headed by Dr. Albert Parlow) using a new purification step. Today, the growth hormone used to treat patients is made biosynthetically and not from human pituitary glands. Biosynthetic growth hormone (bGH), also known as recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), poses no threat of infection with CJD. Based on NHPP records, the HHS estimated 7,700 people were treated with pituitary hGH from the NHPP. Of these, the HHS got the names and addresses of 6,272 from their doctors and treatment centers so that their health could be monitored. Another 1,400 people are believed to have been treated with pituitary hGH; however, the HHS does not have their names and addresses. The HHS hoped to learn about CJD and other health problems in the unmonitored group of 1,400 and notified many doctors about the problem of CJD, asking them to report CJD among people treated with pituitary hGH. The HHS has learned that five of the 29 people with confirmed CJD were among the 1,400 people the HHS was not able to identify and study. Some U.S. laboratories that made pituitary hGH for the NHPP also made hGH for use in other countries. The HHS learned that six people in New Zealand and two people in Brazil who received U.S.-made pituitary hGH may also have gotten CJD. A total of 37 people who were treated with pituitary hGH made in the United States may have gotten CJD. Before bGH was available, several pharmaceutical companies made pituitary hGH. Some children treated in the U.S. received hormone produced by these companies when NHPP hGH was not available to them. Some of the 29 people with confirmed CJD received hGH from both the NHPP and a pharmaceutical company. Recently, the HHS has learned of an individual treated in the U.S. who developed CJD and received only commercial pituitary hGH. That person was not eligible for NHPP hGH and received pituitary hGH made by two pharmaceutical companies.
Source: NIDDK