Patients who have had surgery at a Windsor, Ont., hospital since March are being contacted as a precaution after a surgeon discovered a possible case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease , Ontario's health minister says. Health Canada and the local medical officer of health have been contacted, Clement said. The brain takes on a sponge-like appearance. Early symptoms include memory problems, mood changes and lack of co-ordination. The disease progresses to shakiness and dementia .
Victims are eventually unable to move or speak.
Two patients died at a Colorado hospital this year from Creutzfeldt-Jakob. The disease can be contracted though tainted surgical instruments. A separate form of the disease has been linked directly to eating meat from cattle infected with mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Nearly 100 people in Europe have died of the disease since 1995. Click Here to make suggestions, comments about C-Health.