The cure that killed.

Investigates the tragedy that arose from the use of human growth hormone, obtained by morticians from the pituitary glands of corpses, to treat growth retardation in children. Acclaimed in the 1960s as a dramatic success, the treatment came under suspicion in 1974 as a likely source of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Treatment was allowed to continue during investigations, which revealed bad mortuary practice in the handling of pituitary glands, giving every opportunity for cross-infection from diseased samples. The programme was not halted until 1985, by which time 1,962 children had received it and 12 had died of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. The drug is now synthetically produced but those who were treated pre-1985 live with the fear not only of developing the illness (it is a slow-acting viral disease) but of having ignorantly passed it on to their own children.