Research article

Surveillance for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in China from 2006 to 2007

Qi Shi^{* 1} , Chen Gao^{* 1} , Wei Zhou¹ , Bao-Yun Zhang¹ , Jian-Ming Chen¹ , Chan Tian¹ , Hui-Ying Jiang¹ , Jun Han¹ , Ni-Juan Xiang² , Xiao-Fang Wang² , Yong-Jun Gao² and Xiao-Ping Dong¹

¹State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 100 Ying-Xin Rd, Beijing 100052, PR China

²Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nan-Wei Rd, Beijing 100050, PR China

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

BMC Public Health 2008, 8:360doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-360

Published:	18 October 2008

Abstract

Background

Human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (HTSE), or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), is a group of rare and fatal diseases in central nervous system. Since outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant CJD, a worldwide CJD surveillance network has been established under the proposition of WHO. In China, a national CJD surveillance system has started since 2002. The data of CJD surveillance from 2006 to 2007 was analyzed.

Methods

Total 12 provinces are included in CJD surveillance system. The surveillance unit in each province consists of one or two sentinel hospitals and the provincial CDC. All suspected CJD cases reported from CJD surveillance were diagnosed and subtyped based on the diagnostic criteria for CJD issued by WHO.

Results

Total 192 suspected CJD cases were reported and 5 genetic CJD, 51 probable and 30 possible sporadic CJD (sCJD) cases were diagnosed. The collected sCJD cases distribute sporadically without geographical clustering and seasonal relativity and the highest incidences in both probable and possible sCJD cases appeared in the group of 60–69 year. The most common three foremost symptoms were progressive dementia, cerebellum and mental-related symptoms. The probable sCJD patients owning both typical EEG alteration and CSF protein 14-3-3 positive have more characteristic clinical syndromes than the ones having only one positive. The polymorphisms of codon 129 of all tested reported cases shows typical patterns of Han Chinese as previous reports, that M129M are predominant whereas M129V are seldom.

Conclusion

Chinese CJD patients possessed similar epidemiological and clinical characteristics as worldwide.