The Generative Brain

Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens TSE Subgroup (ACDP TSE Subgroup), United Kingdom

The ACDP TSE Subgroup is the expert subgroup on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (prion diseases) of the UK Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens. The ACDP is an expert committee of the Department of Health and Social Care that advises HSE and ministers on pathogen risks and gives TSE risk assessment advice to ministers and the Food Standards Agency. The subgroup began as the ACDP TSE Working Group, operated for a time as separate risk management and risk assessment subgroups, and appears to have been combined into a single TSE Sub Group from November 2013. It is credited with the UK guidance on minimising CJD and vCJD transmission in healthcare settings, and its review of the vCJD blood component model was cited by the MHRA in 2021. Its current status is not confirmed: the GOV.UK ACDP page lists no subgroups. This entry is information only.

Key facts

  • The parent ACDP is a DHSC expert committee whose work spans HSE, UKHSA and Defra; its terms of reference include TSE risk assessment advice to ministers and the Food Standards Agency.
  • The current GOV.UK ACDP page names no subgroups and links only to an archive of minutes, subgroups and annual reports; papers before June 2013 sit on the HSE website.
  • The guidance Minimise transmission risk of CJD and vCJD in healthcare settings, published by DHSC for England, is credited to the ACDP TSE subgroup and, in the page details, to the ACDP TSE risk management subgroup (formerly the TSE Working Group).
  • That guidance was first published on GOV.UK on 27 November 2012 and last updated on 18 November 2021, when Part 3 on laboratory containment and control measures was revised.
  • The guidance set covers infection control, distribution of TSE infectivity in human and animal tissues, diagnostic criteria, decontamination and waste, transport of infected material, quarantining of surgical instruments, endoscopy, care after death, brain biopsy instruments, presurgical assessment, pathology, ophthalmology, and general surgery and liver transplantation, plus an information sheet for funeral directors and relatives.
  • In 2015 the infection control section and the annexes on decontamination and endoscopy were updated to reflect newer research.
  • The first meeting of an ACDP TSE Risk Assessment Subgroup is recorded in Infected Blood Inquiry evidence as 25 July 2011.
  • In October 2012 the ACDP TSE Risk Assessment Sub Group held a joint meeting with the UK Blood Services Prion Working Group.
  • A search excerpt of an ACDP papers index shows the TSE Risk Assessment Sub Group running to May 2013 and the TSE Risk Management Sub Group to July 2013, followed by a single TSE Sub Group from November 2013.
  • The MHRA 2021 immunoglobulin vCJD risk assessment said the assumptions of the DHSC blood components model had been reviewed by the ACDP TSE subgroup and were considered highly precautionary.
  • In 1998 the ACDP issued a Parliamentary paper on TSE agents, published by the then Department of Health.

Timeline

  1. 1998ACDP paper on TSE agents published.
  2. 2011First meeting of the ACDP TSE Risk Assessment Subgroup.
  3. 2012Joint meeting of the TSE Risk Assessment Sub Group with the UK Blood Services Prion Working Group.
  4. 2012CJD and vCJD healthcare guidance first published on GOV.UK.
  5. 2013TSE Risk Assessment Sub Group ends (search excerpt).
  6. 2013TSE Risk Management Sub Group ends (search excerpt).
  7. 2013Single ACDP TSE Sub Group starts (search excerpt).
  8. 2015Infection control section and Annexes C and F updated.
  9. 2021MHRA immunoglobulin risk assessment cites the subgroup's review of the blood components model.
  10. 2021Part 3 of the guidance (laboratory containment) updated, the latest change on the page.
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