History of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease History

H.G. Creutzfeldt is credited with the first description of the disorder in 1920, although by current diagnostic criteria his case would be highly atypical. A year later another German neurologist, A. Jakob, described four cases, at least two of whom had clinical features suggestive of the entity we recognise as CJD. In 1974 a case of iatrogenic CJD due to corneal transplantation occurred and subsequently contaminated neuro-surgical instruments, dural grafts, and brain depth electrodes have all been recognised as transmitting the disease. In 1985 the first case was reported in a recipient of contaminated human derived growth hormone and subsequently over 60 similar cases have arisen world-wide in addition to 4 cases associated with human derived gonadotrophin. ¹¹

During the mad cow outbreak that started in the late 1990s in the United Kingdom, there were 147 cases of vCJD.^[9] By 2003, cases in the UK were declining and the total number of cases by 2007 was 165.^[5] The United States had has a total of three reported cases of vCJD.^[5] These cases were probably acquired abroad in the UK and Saudi Arabia.