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Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Question Title: CJDForum: Neurology Forum
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Re: CJDPosted by CCF Neuro MD on January 20, 1998 at 12:21:42: In Reply to: CJD posted by Laura Wallen on January 16, 1998 at 13:43:19:
: I would like to obtain any information that I can about CJD. We went throught = The situation you describe is so rare as to probably be unique and I do not know of any other cases similar to yours. As regards the transmission of CJD the only documented cases of transmission are via contaminated brain or spinal fluid products, transmission via blood or blood products has not been documented. In the unique situation youn describe however there is no experience as to the liklehood of transmission. The cases of transmission involved neurosurgeons exposed during surgery and via corneal or dural transplants etc. The new variant CJD described in 25 people in England is possibly due to eating meat but evidence is still at a very early stage. There is no diagnostic measure to detect CJD before it becomes symptomatic, an EEG is typically abnormal late in the disease course, and a CSF test for a protein called Protein 14/3/3 is also positive but again only in the very late stages of the illness in a symptomatic individual. As regards the questions of whether to tell your child not to donate blood this would a good idea as "exposure" in this would probably fall within the exclusion guidelines of most blood banks, ( this does not presume that he will develop the disease ).I would advise this especially since the issue of not donating blood is a relatively minor one in the context of the overall picture. For further information or a consultation you might wish to contact the Neurology Dept in University of California at San Francisco where a faculty member recently won the Nobel Prize for his work on CJD.
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