Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease
a fatal disease of the BRAIN , thought to be caused by a SLOW VIRUS . There is a spongy degeneration of the brain and rapid progressive DEMENTIA . It usually strikes in middle and early old age and is usually fatal within a year. Similar diseases in animals are BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) in cattle and scrapie in sheep, which, it is alleged by some scientists, may be transmittable to humans. Recently there has been alarm that some adults treated in childhood for DWARFISM with extracts of PITUITARY GLANDS obtained from corpses may be at risk of contracting Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease. It ia allenged that some of the pituitary glands obtained may have been infected with the virus and that the disease has been passed on and has already caused some deaths.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, degenerative brain disorder. Symptoms usually start around age 60. Memory problems, behavior changes, vision problems, and poor muscle coordination progress quickly to dementia, coma, and death. Most patients die within a year.
The three main categories of CJD are :
- Sporadic CJD, which occurs for no known reason
- Hereditary CJD, which runs in families
- Acquired CJD, which occurs from contact with infected tissue, usually during a medical procedure
Cattle can get a disease related to CJD called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease." There is concern that people can get a variant of CJD from eating beef from an infected animal, but there is no direct proof to support this.
NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
creutzfeldt-jakob-disease