THE death of a Dutchman 38 years after receiving a low dose of human growth hormone has revived fears about a rare brain disease.

Scientists are aware that patients given injections of human growth hormone were exposed to a risk of contracting the degenerative disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Until now it had been assumed that only patients who had undergone repeated injections were at risk.

Now, doctors in Holland are predicting that further cases of CJD could arise as a result of human growth hormone treatment, even after low doses.

Writing in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Dutch researchers in Rotterdam have reported on the case of a man who developed CJD 38 years after being given a low dose of hormone as part of a diagnostic procedure.

The Dutch doctors believe that the low dose may explain why the incubation period is the longest on record.

Frances Hall from Chester-le-Street, secretary of the Human BSE Foundation, a support group for families affected by variant CJD believed to be spread by eating contaminated beef, said the news was disturbing.

"It's awful for people who have had human growth hormone because they must have thought that enough time had passed so they were in the clear," said Mrs Hall, whose son, Peter, died of vCJD.

"It is also worrying because it could mean more people will go on to develop vCJD," she said.

Rob Beasley, spokesman for the Department of Health, said: "We stopped giving people human growth hormone in May 1985. Up to March 8, 2000, out of 1900 people treated in the UK, 34 have died from CJD.

The worst-case forecast for vCJD still suggests that more than 130,000 people could die in the UK.