Premium
Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease cluster in an Australian rural city
Author(s) -
Collins Steven,
Boyd Alison,
Fletcher Ashley,
Kaldor John,
Hill Andrew,
Farish Stephen,
McLean Catriona,
Ansari Zahid,
Smith Margaret,
Masters Colin L.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.10224
Subject(s) - cluster (spacecraft) , demography , disease , rural population , isolation (microbiology) , transmission (telecommunications) , population , rural area , medicine , geography , pediatrics , gerontology , pathology , biology , bioinformatics , sociology , computer science , electrical engineering , programming language , engineering
Through the Australian National Creutzfeldt‐Jakob Disease Registry, 6 pathologically confirmed sporadic cases were recognized over a 13‐year period in persons who had been long‐term residents of a moderate‐sized rural city, whereas the expected number was 0.923. An extensive investigation could not find any point‐source or case‐to‐case transmission links. This occurrence is highly statistically significant ( p = 0.0027) when viewed in isolation and remains significant ( p < 0.02) when only the cases that arose after the cluster was recognized were taken into account. However, a more conservative statistical analysis suggests that such a grouping could have arisen by chance in at least one population group of this size when the whole country is taken into consideration.