What are the symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)?
Classic CJD is a human disease characterized by progressive dementia, leading to death. The disease may start with confusion or mental symptoms. Other symptoms are difficulty moving and muscle jerks. More and more signs and symptoms of brain damage and movement disorder follow until the patient goes into a coma and dies. Most of the cases of classic CJD have been diagnosed in people between the ages of 55 and 75. How long does it take to develop classic CJD? Evidence suggests that it might take between 10 to 40 years to get sick with classic CJD once abnormal proteins have begun to develop. Classic CJD almost always occurs in people over 50 years old. Once someone gets classic CJD, they may live for six to 12 months. How common is classic CJD? Because classic CJD is caused by the chance, sporadic mutation of a normal brain protein into the prion, the risk of classic CJD is the same all over the world, about one per million persons per year. What is variant-CJD (vCJD)? Variant CJD is a
