A Simple Guide to Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Diagnosis, Treatment and Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Ever since the first TV and newspaper pictures of Mad Cow Disease with cows falling on their legs and foaming at the mouth appear in 1990s, many people in Singapore and worldwide have been fearful of taking beef.
Even the popular Bovril extract made of beef has its ingredients of beef changed to vegetables.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease is an infectious disease produced by prions that damage the brain tissues of cattle.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) indicates the changes in brain tissue of affected cows.

When humans consume the diseased tissue from cattle, they may form the human form of mad cow disease termed variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) or new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD).

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the classic type normally happens in older people either:
1. From an inherited tendency of the brain to change or
2. The disease happens naturally for no obvious reason.

The type diagnosed as happening from eating diseased cattle happens in younger people and has abnormal medical traits, with outstanding psychiatric or sensory symptoms at the time of medical manifestation and delayed start of neurological abnormalities.

These neurological abnormalities are:
1. Ataxia within weeks or months,
2. Dementia (with memory loss and confusion) and
3. Myoclonus late in the illness,
4. A period of illness of at least six months, and
5. A diffusely abnormal non-diagnostic electroencephalogram.

The transmissible causes that induce the disease in both cattle and humans are the atypical protein particles termed prions.

Prions are not the same as bacteria or viruses that produce other infectious diseases; rather, they are regarded as infectious abnormal proteins that are capable of inducing abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins.

The abnormal prions are present in the brain, spinal cord, eye (in the retina), and other tissues of the nervous system of affected animals or humans.

Also, prions can be discovered in the nervous system and in sites such as bone marrow, spleen, and lymph nodes.

Low levels of prions may also be present in blood.

CJD is a type of brain damage that causes a rapid decrease of movement and mental function.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is very infrequent.

It happens in about 1 of every 1 million people.

Variant CJD produces less than 1% of all CJD cases.

It tends to affect younger people.

Over 220 people worldwide have had this disease.

Almost all cases happened in England and France.

Only 4 cases have been reported in the U.S., and in all 4 of these cases, there is evidence that indicates that the infection was acquired while abroad in Europe or the Middle East.

Variant CJD is produced by consuming infected meat.

The infection that produces the disease in cows is thought to be the same one that causes vCJD in humans.

CJD may be related to several other diseases caused by prions such as:
1. Chronic wasting disease (deer)
2. Kuru (mostly women in New Guinea who ate the brains of dead relatives as part of a funeral ritual)
3. Scrapie (sheep)
4. Other very rare inherited human diseases, such as Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease and fatal familial insomnia

All prion diseases are fatal.

The CJD disease can only be confirmed with a brain biopsy or autopsy.

There is no known cure for this disease.

The doctor will provide medicines to relieve symptoms

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Dementia
Chapter 8 Alzheimer’s Disease
Epilogue

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Mar 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005928391

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

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