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Project Overview
The California Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) Surveillance Project,
in collaboration the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), conducts
enhanced surveillance for CJD, variant CJD (vCJD) and other Transmissible
Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) in the state of California.
As of June 2007 CDPH added TSE, including CJD, to the list of
reportable diseases. We support these surveillance efforts, with
additional follow up effort on cases afflicting patients less
than 55 years old.
Case Definition:
A definitive diagnosis of a TSE can only be made by neuropathological
examination of brain tissue obtained through biopsy or autopsy.
Although CJD may be suspected on the basis of clinical symptoms
and the results of other diagnostic tests, none are confirmatory
and the diagnosis is difficult to make. Because these diseases
are rare and difficult to diagnose, the CDPH’s
surveillance case definition requires that the diagnosis
of CJD be made either by a neurologist or confirmed by biopsy
or autopsy.
Project
Goals
• Review
CJD epidemiologic data to learn more about these illness, monitor
trends and detect novel forms of disease or transmission.
• Monitor ongoing CJD testing in collaboration with
the National
Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) at Case
Western University, (the national NIH-funded testing and
surveillance center for CJD) and the CDC.
• Support CDPH reporting efforts
• Review pertinent clinical and neuropathology records
in persons younger than 55 years old with symptoms and test
results suggestive of CJD.
• Contact medical providers and/or public health
officials in cases with possible environmental or unusual sources
of infection.
• Be an educational resource for clinicians, local
health departments and communities in California.
• Increase accuracy of diagnoses through increased
autopsy and biopsy rates in cases of suspected TSE in California
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