Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable brain disorder that occurs with an incidence of one case per million annually.

The majority of patients die within six months of illness onset.

The disease causes damage to the brain leaving patients completely dependent on their caregivers

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for the most basic needs of daily living.

In 1996, a variant form of CJD emerged in the United Kingdom, which was causally linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Over 230 variant CJD cases have been identified worldwide, including four cases in the United States whose BSE exposure is believed based on epidemiological evidence to have occurred outside of the United States.This Notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) will help provide the latest information on human prion diseases to families of loved ones affected by these diseases as well as to public health service providers, other health professionals, and groups at highest risk for these diseases.

Providing this information in a timely manner will strengthen efforts to more effectively monitor, to better understand and to ultimately reduce the incidence of those forms of prion diseases such as variant CJD that are preventable.

It will also strengthen efforts to identify early the emergence of potentially new prion diseases in people such as possible human chronic wasting disease (CWD).

In the United States, the ongoing prion disease outbreak among deer and elk called CWD continues to spread.