All French public laboratories are suspending their work on prions for three months. This decision follows the revelation of a new case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a former laboratory employee.
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The management of ANSES, CEA, CNRS, INRAE and Inserm have decided to stop their work on prions, an infectious agent responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, with the support of the Ministry of Research, in the name of the precautionary principle.
She is motivated by “knowledge of a possible new case of a person with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) who worked in a prion research laboratoryThe uncertainty in the present case rests on the origin of the disease.
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A rare disease
CJD is one of the prion diseases, better known as “mad cow disease “. It is a rare disease characterized by rapid and fatal degeneration of the central nervous system.
It can be of sporadic origin (which occurs randomly), the most frequent form, of genetic or infectious origin following contamination.
The person with CJD is a retired agent from INRAE (the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment).
One case detected in 2010
The period of suspension of laboratory work should make it possible to establish a possible link between his disease and his former activity, and if necessary to adapt the preventive measures in force in the laboratories, according to the press release.
If this link were true, it would be the second such accident for someone who worked on prions. An assistant engineer, who was injured in 2010 during an experiment, died of the disease in 2019. In 2020, a New England Journal of Medicine study, based on her case, found a link of potential causality between this incident and his illness.
An inspection mission commissioned by the Ministries of Research and Agriculture concluded in October 2020 that laboratories were complying with regulatory obligations and that a “risk management culture“, according to the press release.
