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Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: The Problem of Recipient Notification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Gordon DuVal
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Extract

In the past twelve to eighteen months, another perceived threat to the safety of America's blood supply has arisen. The fear is that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) will join hepatitis, HW and AIDS in the public and medical consciousness as the 1990s next infectious disease epidemic. A particular kind of ethical dilemma has arisen causing much debate and consternation for hospitals, regulators, and blood suppliers, and has elicited a remarkably varied response.

CJD is a rare but uniformly fatal neurological disease: it affects the brain and the rest of the central nervous system. Its incidence in the population of the developed world is about one per million per year, although some geographic anomalies exist. CJD manifests itself in two broad ways. First, the disease is associated with symptoms of mental deterioration and dementia, including memory loss, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. Second, CJD is also associated with a range of neurological symptoms, including muscle rigidity, seizures, tremors, muscle twitching, and spasticity, as well as problems with muscle coordination and unsteady gait, sometimes resulting in total disability.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Spring 1997 , pp. 34 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1997

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References

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