Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): A Rare, Fast Brain Disorder

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, degenerative brain disorder.

Course

Symptoms usually begin 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.

Three types

"Mad cow disease"

Cattle can get a related disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease." There is concern that people could get a variant of CJD from eating beef from an infected animal, but there is no direct proof of this.

Sources

Based on "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, drawing on the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; a work of the United States government in the public domain.