Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob illness is a rare, degenerative brain disorder. Symptoms typically start around age 60. Memory harms, behavior changes, vision harms and poor muscle coordination progress rapidly to dementia, coma and death. Most patients die within a year.

The three main category of CJD are

* sporadic CJD, which occurs for no recognized reason

* hereditary CJD, which runs in family

* acquired CJD, which occurs from contact with impure tissue, usually during a medical procedure

Cattle can get an illness related to CJD called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow illness." It is possible that populace can get a variation of CJD from eating beef from an impure animal.