PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Three cases of a rare, fatal brain disease have been reported by public health officials in Oregon’s Hood River County.
The cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been confirmed over the last eight months, and it’s unclear if these cases are linked at this time, according to the Hood River County Health Department on Friday.
The Oregonian/OregonLive, which was the first to report on the cases, says two of the cases have resulted in deaths. Nexstar’s KOIN reached out to the Hood River County Health Department for confirmation but did not immediately receive a response.
No other details about the local cases were immediately available.
In a Facebook post announcing the investigation, health department officials for Hood River County described the risk to the public as “extremely low.”
What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the result of a prion, a type of infectious protein, triggering a body’s normal proteins to misfold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no treatment or cure, and will typically lead to death within a year from when symptoms begin.
A neurodegenerative disorder, CJD is characterized by Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, though they get worse “much faster,” the Mayo Clinic writes. Specifically, symptoms can include memory loss, coordination issues, trouble speaking, and personality changes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Hood River County health officials say most cases of CJD can happen without a known reason, but sometimes it can be inherited by running in families and in very rare cases, it can be spread through certain medical exposures or by eating infected beef. The latter is often referred to as “variant CJD,” the CDC says.
A report published last year suggested two hunters contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating venison from deer infected with chronic wasting disease, also a prion disease. The researchers behind the study noted the causation was “unproven” and that further investigation is needed.
Authorities in Oregon have not yet said what may have caused the recent cases. The rate of CJD diagnoses in the U.S. is about one person per million, the CDC estimates.
Nexstar’s Michael Bartiromo and Addy Bink contributed to this report.
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