Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) are among many of the insidious infectious diseases that are incurable once a person becomes infected. Similar to HIV in the early 1980's, very little is known about the enigmatic infectious agent. How the infectious agent is expressly transmitted is as inexplicable as CJD itself. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent of current research literature and other scholarly works in order to synthesize what is known about this fatal disease. The scope of this study was confined to the years 1993 to 1998. In addition to the information in the literature, consultation was sought from Yale University's Dr. L. Manuledis and a graduate student, Christopher A. Baker, was volunteered as a conduit for information on CJD/nvCJD. Three questions guided this study: 1) How are CJD/nvCJD diagnosed? 2) How is it transmitted?, and 3) What are the existing clinical recommendations for the management of CJD/nvCJD? One out of a million people are affected by it, and nvCJD has the potential of being spread by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE[Mad Cow]) tainted beef. Through this study I discovered that CJD and nvCJD have multiple routes for infection and current speculation remains divided on the dynamics of its transmission. Some of the literature was specialized and focused on proving the value of one discipline's diagnostic technique over another. While healthcare is shifting to a competitive business environment, my focus was on what were the most effective techniques regarding the diagnosis of it, limiting the spread of the infectious agent, and the medical management of infected patients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:honorstheses1990-2015-1129 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Briddell, Brian L. |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | HIM 1990-2015 |
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