More CJD Links Even with standard sterilization practices, this lethal disease can be transmitted from patient to patient through neurosurgical instruments, as well as through transplants of corneas and certain brain tissues. At least 100 people have been thus infected. Surveillance The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are conducting surveillance for CJD around the United States. And if there has been an increase in the number of CJD cases, the next step is identifying the sources of infection. CJD is in a class of diseases called TSEs.
Death usually occurs in four to six months after infection.
Other TSEs include kuru, a condition limited to New Guinea and spread by cannibalism, and scrapie, a disease that affects sheep. But it was the so-called mad cow disease that brought widespread attention to TSEs. A small number of cases, allegedly caused by consumption of British beef contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, caused widespread panic and an international ban on British beef. Heightened precautions around the world may help reduce the number of cases of BSE contracted from eating tainted beef.