Yesterday at the Human Mad Cow's disease demo in London I met a man who had recently been exposed to CJD/vCJD via stainless steel surgical instruments used in his operation, he was very angry about this as he is living in fear that oneday he may develop this lethal disease. This got me thinking that if this man has been exposed through instruments how many others patients are also being put at risk in the same way when having operations. Some years ago (2002) I read that scientists at Southampton University had developed a scan which could spot rogue prions sticking to stainless steel instruments but this was never introduced also a solution to de-contaminate instruments was also developed but not put into use. I just cannot understand why our Department of Health continues to ignore patient safety over this serious health issue, not only are we at risk from instruments, donated blood is also another huge area of concern.
It is about time the Department of Health stopped this cover-up and put patients safety first.