Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?

A rare incurable disease of humans that affects the nervous system and results in rapidly progressive dementia, loss of motor control, paralysis, and death.

CJD is very rare, affecting how many people each year?

About 1 in 1 million people.

Symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) resemble symptoms of what other disease?

Alzheimer's

People affected by CJD are between the ages of?

Most are between the ages of 45 and 75 years.

Can this disease be transmitted through coughing or sneezing, touching or sexual contact?

NO.

Initial signs and symptoms of CJD typically include (name 3):

Personality changes, anxiety, depression, memory loss, impaired thinking, blurred vision, insomnia, difficulty speaking, difficulty swallowing, and sudden jerky movements.

These damage cells of the nervous system, forming holes in the tissue that eventually leads to severe brain damage and death.

Prions.

Unlike other diseases that are caused by bacteria or viruses, this disease is caused by abnormal pieces of protein called?

Prions.

How CJD is transmitted?

Spontaneously, genetic mutation, and by contamination.

What is Variant CJD?

typically affects younger people less than 30 years of age and is associated with eating meat from cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), popularly known as "mad cow disease."

The three types of classical CJD are?

Sporadic, familial (genetic), and iatrogenic. sporadic: this form of the condition occurs with no known cause and affects 85% to 90% of people with classical CJD. familial (genetic): this form appears in families that seem to have a greater likelihood of developing this disease due to their genetics. iatrogenic: affecting less than 1% of classical CJD cases, people with this form of the condition develop classical CJD from accidental contamination by the abnormal prions, often through contaminated medical equipment.