Patient contacted over `possible CJD risk' wishes to contact others on list

A Dublin resident who says he is one of the 49 people contacted by St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, because of a possible risk of contracting variant CreutzfeldtJakob Disease (CJD) from a potentially contaminated instrument, is seeking to contact others who may be at risk.

St Vincent's Hospital announced on Friday last that it had diagnosed the Republic's first case of CJD - a form of the animal disease BSE which is fatal in humans. The hospital said the patient had undergone a gastroscopic biopsy at the hospital before the CJD was diagnosed.

The gastroscope was subsequently used on 49 other patients whom the hospital was contacting, Mr Nicholas Jermyn, CEO of St Vincent's, announced.

However, Mr Dimitris Dimakos, who is living in Killiney, Co Dublin, and who says he underwent a gastroscopic investigation at the hospital on May 23rd last - eight days before the CJD diagnosis was made - says he is not satisfied by assurances that the risk of cross-contamination is infinitesimal.

The hospital is adamant that the risk of cross-contamination from the gastroscope is zero-rated and it pointed out that there is no known incidence of transmission of the disease in this way.

Mr Dimakos said he had received a letter from the hospital, explaining that the risk was almost zero, and informing him that the hospital had decided to write because of the danger that he would be alarmed by something that he might read in the media.

On Friday last Mr Jermyn flatly rejected a suggestion that the press conference at the hospital was called because the diagnosis of CJD was about to be made public in the media. There would, he said, have been a "press information meeting" to advise medical correspondents of the diagnosis. Mr Dimakos told The Irish Times yesterday that he was "extremely distressed" and was worried for his health.

He is now seeking others who have been contacted by the hospital. "We have all been affected by the hospital's action, we should talk to each other about it", he commented. Individuals wishing to contact Mr Dimakos may do so on Dublin 272 1200.