HPA announces enzyme decontaminator product

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), the body that aims to provide support and advice to the NHS, Department of Health and emergency services, among others, has announced the launch of a decontamination product for surgical instruments.

According to the HPA, the Prionzyme-branded enzyme that the product uses is able to remove the threat posed by proteins associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) by degrading them.

“Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease can be a devastating disease and the prions, the associated agents, are an enigma,” said Sir William Stewart, chairman of the HPA.

“The fact that we have developed a system which can destroy prions and can be widely applied in hospitals is an important breakthrough. It also means that the safe disposal of previously contaminated instruments should no longer be a problem.”

Scientists working for the HPA originally devised the idea and the agency’s partner, Genecor International, has developed the product for the European market.

It has been CE marked by a European Community Notified Body and will be used for invasive surgical procedures where techniques used to sterilise surgical instruments prove ineffective.

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