Creutzfeldt - Jakob Disease

Plenty of people love the fact that they can enjoy life normal because their brain functions accordingly. Well not every one has the gift of normality. In this harsh world people are dying of all types of diseases and things that are undetectable or even treatable due to the fact that they have unknown origins. Many of the world's diseases such as HIV, AIDS, some cases of Multiple Sclerosis and Muscular Dystrophies. Among these fatal and life threatening ailments Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, other wise known as (CJD), takes precedence.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an unusual, degenerative, consistently terminal brain disorder, typically onset of symptoms occurs at about age 60. This disease has been categorized into three major categories: 1) sporadic CJD, 2) hereditary CJD, 3) acquired CJD.

In sporadic CJD, the disease occurs even though the affected does not have any known risk factors that would cause an occurrence of the disease. This sudden occurring CJD is indisputably the most frequently diagnosed type of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease. This statistically accounts for at least 85 percent of CJD cases. Due to that there are some fifty to sixty deaths per year due to sporadic CJD in the United States alone. Similar figures are seen in other countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In hereditary CJD, the infected person has inherited an abnormal gene due a family history of the disease or takes a test in which their results are positive for a genetic mutation that is associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. About 5 to 10 percent of cases of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease in the United States are hereditary and the United Kingdom has a population in the region of 58 million and there are only a few instances of deaths due to genetic CJD in a year.

In acquired CJD, the disease is transmitted by exposure to brain or nervous system tissue, usually through certain medical procedures. Acquired CJD is also very rare; so far there has been no solid evidence that CJD is transmittable through casual encounter with a patient with CJD. Since Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease was first discovered in 1920, less than 1 percent of cases have been diagnosed as acquired CJD.

Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (CJD) belongs to a family of human and animal diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Spongiform refers to the distinctive look of contaminated brains, which become filled with holes until they bear a resemblance to sponges when seen under a microscope. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease is the most widespread of the TSEs known to humans. There also are other TSEs which are commonly found in specific kinds of animals; one example being bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). is found in cows. Most people refer to this as the infamous "Mad Cow" disease, which affects sheep and goats also.

Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease is classified by fast progressive dementia in which patients initially tend to experience problems with muscular coordination skills, personality/ mood changes, and impaired or loss of vision. A person with the disease may also experience the inability to sleep, disorientation, chronic depression, or very unusual sensations. CJD is not like a fever or flu therefore the symptoms are different. As the disease gets worse, the patients' cognitive harm becomes severe. The infected often develops muscle spasms palsies, rigid paralysis, and they may eventually go blind. They even lose the ability to move and speak and enter a coma over an extended period of time. (Ratzan11) Pneumonia and other infections often occur in these patients and can lead to death. Most of these symptoms of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease are similar to those of other progressive neurological disorders, such as Huntington's disease or Alzheimer's.

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