Rare brain disorder cases show no link, officials say

HOOD RIVER — Local and state health officials say an investigation into three recent cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare brain disorder, found no connection between them.

Columbia Gorge News first reported in April that three cases had been identified in Hood River County, two of which were fatal, according to the first press release.

The Hood River County Health Department, working with the Oregon Health Authority and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that its review of the 2025 cases did not uncover any shared source.

“The health department has completed its investigation into the 2025 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Hood River County,” said Daron Ryan, public information officer for the department. “At this time, there is no identifiable link between these three cases, and there is no new information to release to the public.”

Ryan said prion disease experts reviewed regional case data as part of the inquiry. “We continue to investigate and monitor diseases that could be a risk to the public and will share updates if we see a concerning pattern arise,” he said.

CJD is a degenerative neurological condition that often occurs without warning, according to Debbie Yobs, president and executive director of the CJD Foundation. She said it can resemble other illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“More commonly CJD is just like other neurodegenerative diseases … in that it generally occurs sporadically,” Yobs said. “It’s really just genuinely a random scattering. They use the bag of rice analogy — if you dropped a bag of rice, it would scatter places, there would be clumps. So you know in one year maybe there is a clump of three in your state, in the next year they’ll be a clump of three in a different state.”

She added that roughly 600 cases of CJD occur in the United States each year. While it can affect adults of any age, it is most common after 60. “It does not generally occur in children under 18 … but it certainly could occur in the 20s or 30s or 40s,” Yobs said.

CJD can arise in three ways: most often sporadically, through a genetic mutation, or, in rare cases, as a result of surgical procedures. Yobs noted that medical practices that once carried risks — such as certain cornea transplants — have long been discontinued.

“In some rare instances of cornea transplants, they did unfortunately transmit CJD,” she said. “Those are very, very old examples. So just doing a surgery is not likely to transmit it.”

Yobs noted that a variant of the disease can be contracted by eating beef contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. But health officials confirmed that this was not the type found in Hood River, where the cases were identified as typical CJD. Calling it a “mad cow–like disease,” Yobs added, would be misleading. “Just like calling malaria a mosquito-like disease,” she said.

There is no cure, though Yobs said research continues. “Unfortunately, there is not [a cure], although we’re very happy that there are some pharmaceutical companies and others working toward developing a treatment.”

For more information on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, visit the CJD Foundation at CJDfoundation.org or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at cdc.gov/creutzfeldt-jakob.