Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease In Some Cases example essay topic

Plenty of people love the fact that they can enjoy life normal because their brain functions accordingly. Well not every one has the gift of normality. In this harsh world people are dying of all types of diseases and things that are undetectable or even treatable due to the fact that they have unknown origins. Many of the world's diseases such as HIV, AIDS, some cases of Multiple Sclerosis and Muscular Dys trophies. Among these fatal and life threatening ailments Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, other wise known as (CJD), takes precedence. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an unusual, degenerative, consistently terminal brain disorder, typically onset of symptoms occurs at about age 60.

This disease has been categorized into three major categories: 1) sporadic CJD, 2) hereditary CJD, 3) acquired CJD. In sporadic CJD, the disease occurs even though the affected does not have any known risk factors that would cause an occurrence of the disease. This sudden occurring CJD is indisputably the most frequently diagnosed type of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease. This statistically accounts for at least 85 percent of CJD cases.

Due to that there are some fifty to sixty deaths per year due to sporadic CJD in the United States alone. Similar figures are seen in other countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. In hereditary CJD, the infected person has inherited an abnormal gene due a family history of the disease or takes a test in which their results are positive for a genetic mutation that is associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. About 5 to 10 percent of cases of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease in the United States are hereditary and the United Kingdom has a population in the region of 58 million and there are only a few instances of deaths due to genetic CJD in a year.

In acquired CJD, the disease is transmitted by exposure to brain or nervous system tissue, usually through certain medical procedures. Acquired CJD is also very rare; so far there has been no solid evidence that CJD is transmittable through casual encounter with a patient with CJD. Since Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease was first discovered in 1920, less than 1 percent of cases have been diagnosed as acquired CJD. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (CJD) belongs to a family of human and animal diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Spongiform refers to the distinctive look of contaminated brains, which become filled with holes until they bear a resemblance to sponges when seen under a microscope. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease is the most widespread of the TSEs known to humans.

There also are other TSEs which are commonly found in specific kinds of animals; one example being bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). is found in cows. Most people refer to this as the infamous "Mad Cow" disease, which affects sheep and goats also. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease is classified by fast progressive dementia in which patients initially tend to experience problems with muscular coordination skills, personality / mood changes, and impaired or loss of vision. A person with the disease may also experience the inability to sleep, disorientation, chronic depression, or very unusual sensations. CJD is not like a fever or flu therefore the symptoms are different. As the disease gets worse, the patients' cognitive harm becomes severe.

The infected often develops muscle spasms palsies, rigid paralysis, and they may eventually go blind. They even lose the ability to move and speak and enter a coma over an extended period of time. (Rattan 11) Pneumonia and other infections often occur in these patients and can lead to death. Most of these symptoms of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease are similar to those of other progressive neurological disorders, such as Huntington's disease or Alzheimer's. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease cannot be transmitted through the air or through touching or most other forms of casual association.

Spouses and other household members of a people who are sporadic CJD patients have no higher risk of getting the disease than those in the overall population. Although contact with spinal cord fluid and brain tissue from contaminated patients should be avoided to prevent spread of the disease through these materials. Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease, in some cases has spread to other people from grafts of tissue that covers the brain (dura mater), transplanted corneas, implantation of inefficiently clean electrodes in the brain, and injections of infected pituitary growth hormone taken from human pituitary glands taken from cadavers. The appearance of the new variant of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (nv-CJD or v-CJD) in several younger than average people has led to concern that BSE may be transmitted to humans through eating of contaminated beef.

Even though lab tests have shown a strong connection between the prions causing BSE and v-CJD, there is no direct proof to support this theory. People around the world are apprehensive on the fact that it may be possible to spread Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease through blood and related blood goods such as plasma. Studies in animal put forward that contaminated blood and plasma may spread the disease, although this assumption has never been proven in humans. If there are infectious agents in these fluids, they are probably in very low concentrations.

There is no treatment that can cure or control Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease. Many drugs have been tested, and a variety of other drugs are now in progress. However, so far not one of these treatments has shown any reliable advantage in humans. Currently treatment of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease is focused at getting rid of the symptoms and making the infected patient comfortable if possible. During the later progression of the disease, shifting the contaminated person's position frequently can keep them comfortable and can help prevent bedsores and ulcers from forming. Other methods such as catheters (any tube system placed in the body to drain and collect urine from the bladder) can be used to drain urine if the patient cannot control bladder function, and intravenous fluids (IV) and artificial feeding also may be used.

To decrease the already very low risk of Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease spread from one person to another, people should by no means donate blood, tissues, or organs if they have alleged or established CJD.