Essay on Cjd
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
For this assignment, I chose Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease because my aunt was diagnosed with it last year and passed away because of it, so I have some prior knowledge. There's a lot of different strains or forms of CJD, such as classic or sporadic CJD (sCJD), variant CJD (vCJD), familial CJD (fCJD) and iatrogenic CJD which is CJD caused by adverse effects as a result from medical treatment. However, sporadic CJD and variant CJD are the most common, or as common as it can get in a disease that has one case out of a million people around the globe every year.
Classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a rare disease that has had cases as far back as the 1920’s. It’s a neurodegenerative disorder, similar to that of Alzheimer’s and dementia, and is rapidly progressive and always fatal. It occurs randomly, caused by the random creation of abnormal protein prions from normal protein prions. This happens so rarely, that there is usually only one case of death from CJD per one million a year.
There is a form of CJD called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is tied to the mad cow disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was a pandemic in the United Kingdom in the late 1980’s. They’re similar in the fact that they’re both degenerative neurological diseases and progress rapidly. However, classic CJD is different from variant CJD, with classic CJD usually occurring in older people, and vCJD occurring mostly in the late 20’s. CJD is often referred to as the human form of mad cow disease.
Symptoms of CJD include dementia that quickly progresses that leads to personality changes, memory loss and hallucinations. These then lead to speech impairment, jerky movements, trouble with balance and coordination dysfunction. A significant change in how people diagnosed with CJD walk and their posture is also noticeable, with their movements becoming much more rigid and in some cases people have developed involuntary movements as well.
For this assignment, I chose Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease because my aunt was diagnosed with it last year and passed away because of it, so I have some prior knowledge. There's a lot of different strains or forms of CJD, such as classic or sporadic CJD (sCJD), variant CJD (vCJD), familial CJD (fCJD) and iatrogenic CJD which is CJD caused by adverse effects as a result from medical treatment. However, sporadic CJD and variant CJD are the most common, or as common as it can get in a disease that has one case out of a million people around the globe every year.
Classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a rare disease that has had cases as far back as the 1920’s. It’s a neurodegenerative disorder, similar to that of Alzheimer’s and dementia, and is rapidly progressive and always fatal. It occurs randomly, caused by the random creation of abnormal protein prions from normal protein prions. This happens so rarely, that there is usually only one case of death from CJD per one million a year.
There is a form of CJD called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is tied to the mad cow disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was a pandemic in the United Kingdom in the late 1980’s. They’re similar in the fact that they’re both degenerative neurological diseases and progress rapidly. However, classic CJD is different from variant CJD, with classic CJD usually occurring in older people, and vCJD occurring mostly in the late 20’s. CJD is often referred to as the human form of mad cow disease.
Symptoms of CJD include dementia that quickly progresses that leads to personality changes, memory loss and hallucinations. These then lead to speech impairment, jerky movements, trouble with balance and coordination dysfunction. A significant change in how people diagnosed with CJD walk and their posture is also noticeable, with their movements becoming much more rigid and in some cases people have developed involuntary movements as well.