AAP News Vol. 2 No. 10 October 1986, p. 1
© 1986 American Academy of Pediatrics
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Discretionary use of growth hormone advised

Robert M. Blizzard M.D.

Human growth hormone extracted from human pituitaries has been used for approximately 25 years to study its therapeutic value in children who are deficient in growth hormone. Distribution of the pituitary-derived growth hormone was stopped late in the spring of 1985 after three deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease occurred in patients in the United States who had received growth hormone in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fortunately, no subsequent deaths or related illnesses have been reported for patients in the United States. However, one patient from England who also reportedly died from Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease received a preparation of growth hormone approximately 20 years ago.