By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
 
Social Security confirmed that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a neurological disorder and not a disease that can be spread between patients.

This clarification is the result of the detection of a case of the disease in a 53-year-old woman who is hospitalized at the San Juan de Dios Hospital*.

According to the Social Security report, the woman was operated on at the San Juan de Dios Hospital* for another health problem that was not related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The surgery team, however, had not been informed that the patient had that neurological problem and the maintenance service of the hospital performed a deep cleaning in all the operating rooms as part of protocol against possible contagious diseases.

"The woman's illness could not have been contagious to the surgeons or to any other patient," said specialists.

According to the specialists, this neurological disease is rare and there are three types:

- ECJ of sporadic type that includes the majority of cases. It happens without a known reason. The average age of onset is 55 years.

- ECJ family type that occurs when a person inherits from one of the parents.
 
- ECJ acquired type that includes the variant CJD (v CJD), the form related to the disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy ,commonly known as mad cow disease.