Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease:
Two people are believed to have died from a rare and incurable brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) within just a few months of each other in the United States.
- It is a rare brain disorder that leads to dementia.
- It belongs to a group of human and animal diseases known as prion disorders, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). .
- Symptoms of CJD can be similar to those of Alzheimer’s
- But CJD usually gets worse much faster and leads to death.
- All types of CJD are serious but are very rare.
- About 1 to 2 cases of CJD are diagnosed per million people around the world each year.
- The disease most often affects older adults.
- CJD and other prion diseases are caused by abnormal forms of proteins called prions.
- Healthy and harmless prion proteins are found throughout the body but mostly in the nervous system. Their overall role isn’t fully understood.
- When abnormal prions form, they can transmit their incorrect and damaging form to nearby healthy prion proteins and cause the healthy prions to change into abnormal prions.
- Once they’re formed, prions can clump together and build up in brain tissue, which may lead to the nerve cell loss and other brain damage seen in CJD and other prion diseases.
- The main symptoms of CJD are cognitive decline leading to dementia, involuntary muscle jerks (myoclonus), and lack of coordination of movements.
- Most people with CJD will die within a year of the symptoms starting, usually from infection.
- There’s currently no cure for CJD, so treatment aims to relieve symptoms and make the affected person feel as comfortable as possible.
- This can include using medicine such as antidepressants to help with anxiety and depression, and painkillers to relieve pain.
