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In this Article

• What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)?
• What are the symptoms of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
• How is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease diagnosed?
• How is the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease treated?
• What causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
• How is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease transmitted?
• How can people avoid spreading Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
• What research is taking place with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
• How can I help research?
• Where can I get more information about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Glossary
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Index

How Can People Avoid Spreading the Disease?

To reduce the already very low risk of CJD transmission from one person to another, people should never donate blood, tissues, or organs if they have suspected or confirmed CJD, or if they are at increased risk because of a family history of the disease, a dura mater graft, or other factor.

Normal sterilization procedures such as cooking, washing, and boiling do not destroy prions. Caregivers, health care workers, and undertakers should take the following precautions when they are working with a person with CJD:

• Wash hands and exposed skin before eating, drinking, or smoking.
  
  
• Cover cuts and abrasions with waterproof dressings.
  
  
• Wear surgical gloves when handling a patient's tissues and fluids or dressing the patient's wounds.
  
  
• Avoid cutting or sticking themselves with instruments contaminated by the patient's blood or other tissues.
  
  
• Use face protection if there is a risk of splashing contaminated material such as blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
  
  
• Soak instruments that have come in contact with the patient in undiluted chlorine bleach for an hour or more, then use an autoclave (pressure cooker) to sterilize them in distilled water for at least one hour at 132 - 134 degrees Centigrade.

What Research Is Taking Place?

Many researchers are studying CJD. They are examining whether the transmissible agent is, in fact, a prion or a product of the infection, and are trying to discover factors that influence prion infectivity and how the disorder damages the brain. Using rodent models of the disease and brain tissue from autopsies, they are also trying to identify factors that influence susceptibility to the disease and that govern when in life the disease appears. They hope to use this knowledge to develop improved tests for CJD and to learn what changes ultimately kill the neurons so that effective treatments can be developed.