Creutzveld Jacob
Creutzveldt-Jacob's disease.
About 1 in a million people suffer from Creutzveldt-Jacob's disease. So it's a rare disease. In the Netherlands there are between 10 and 20 people who suffer from this disease every year. Creutzveldt-Jacob is a brain disease that occurs in people over 50 years of age. Although in recent years a new form has emerged that also occurs in younger people, especially under 40 years of age.
The disease manifests itself after an incubation period between 4 and 20 years (the time between infection and the onset of the disease), both in humans and animals, but can only be determined after death. The brain turns into a spongy mass, as a result of which functions are lost. As a result, dementia develops quite suddenly. The symptoms are: no longer having control over the muscles, muscle jerks, speech disturbance, paralysis and equilibrium disorder. There is no treatment for Creutzveldt-Jacob's disease. People who have the disease usually die within a year after the disease reveals itself.
The cause of getting this disease is still quite unknown. In 15% of cases, there is a heredity. Further, it can come from contact with lymph nodes or brain tissue of a carrier of this disease. It has sometimes happened that someone got the disease after a medical procedure. Because drugs were made from tissue from deceased people who may have been infected with Creutzfeldt-Jacob's disease, people may have been infected in this way. Fortunately, measures have been taken and this is no longer the case nowadays. The classic form of Creutzveldt-Jacob originates from the Cannibals, who ate the brains of their infected, sick ancestors and were thus infected. Thus, by blood contact or by air or touch, this disease is not transmitted.
