HOOD RIVER — Three cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare brain disorder, have been identified in Hood River County. Of the three, only one has been confirmed, with the other two listed as “probable.” Two people have died.
Hood River County Health Department believes these are the first cases ever reported in the county.
CJD is “a rare, fatal brain disorder within a group of illnesses called prion diseases,” according to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation. “The incidence of CJD cases worldwide is one or two per million individuals, per year.”
Daron Ryan, public information officer for Hood River County Health Department, said the risk of CJD to the public is “extremely low,” and that “there is currently no evidence of person-to-person transmission of CJD.”
There is also no evidence that prion diseases are associated with vaccinations, Ryan added.
Hood River County Health Department first reported the cases in a media release dated April 11, which read in part: “These cases have been found in the past eight months, and at this time, it is not known if the cases are linked.”
The health department is limited in what it can say about the cases because of patient privacy laws and since this is an active investigation, but Ryan was able to give general information.
As of April 24, any connections between cases had yet to be identified, though Ryan said the investigation is ongoing in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). No additional cases have been identified in the Gorge.
About 500 cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. Most are classified as “sporadic,” or without a known cause. It can also be inherited or, in rare cases, “it may be spread through certain medical exposures to infected brain or nervous tissue or by eating infected beef,” according to the health department.
Provisional data from the Oregon Health Authority shows that there were 13 cases in Oregon in 2024, all in the 60 to 84-plus age range; six were male and seven were female. Seven total cases within the same age range were reported in 2023.
“This [current] grouping of cases may likely be determined a random finding of sporadic disease with assistance from OHA, CDC, and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center,” Ryan said.
Local health departments receive notification from medical providers or through Oregon’s electronic disease surveillance system of any suspected, presumptive, or confirmed cases of reportable diseases, including CJD. Once identified, the notified health department begins investigation protocols.
Currently, the Hood River County Health Department investigation includes “patient age, family history of CJD, past surgical procedures involving the central nervous system including certain eye procedures, certain tissue transplants, history of blood transfusion or receiving specific human growth hormones, and wild game exposure,” said Ryan. “This investigative process includes ongoing consultation with subject matter experts at Oregon Health Authority (OHA), infectious disease experts at CDC, pathologists at OHSU [Oregon Health and Science University], and the specialists at National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center.”
Ryan said that a CJD diagnosis can be made when a patient is still alive, but a confirmed case cannot be made without a brain biopsy or autopsy. “In lieu of this, other diagnostic methods can be used while the patient is alive but only will result in a presumptive case diagnosis,” Ryan said. “Several methods are used, including MRIs and cerebrospinal fluid diagnostics.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, early symptoms of CJD include personality changes, memory loss, impaired thinking, blurry vision or blindness, insomnia, problems with coordination, trouble speaking and/or swallowing, and sudden, jerky movements
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