Prion Diseases as Transmissible Zoonotic Diseases

Lee, Jeongmin; Kim, Su Yeon; Hwang, Kyu Jam; Ju, Young Ran; Woo, Hee-Jong

Since vCJD was first reported in 1996, a total of 224 patients with this disease from 12 countries have been identified worldwide, as shown in Table 3 ; the main symptoms include unstable emotions; abnormal senses; paralysis in linguistic, visual, and other senses; as well as the inability to move and cognitive disability before death [56, 57] . While sCJD is common in older people, vCJD can occur in young people after a short incubation period [58] . There is much epidemiological and laboratory evidence of a strong correlation between variants of CJD and BSE; vCJD differs from other CJDs clinically and histopathologically, and the initial extended exposure of the population to potentially BSEcontaminated food (1984e1986) was geographically and chronologically consistent with the initial onset of vCJD cases (1994e1996), considering the incubation period [1, 59] . The facts that sCJD occurs in old people at the ratio of one to two out of 1 million people and vCJD is frequent in people in their 20s and 30s have led the public to believe that the dietary habits of the younger generation (who tend to eat more fast food such as hamburgers) may be the cause of the disease. However, recent findings suggest that age-related body conditions are the causative factors of the disease [60] . The EU has been establishing countermeasures against the transmission of vCJD via blood transfusion. Current studies are focusing on the possibility of transmission via dental treatment [61, 62] .