Prion and Public Health Office (PPHO), Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, CDC

The Prion and Public Health Office is the unit of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks, investigates and helps diagnose human prion diseases. It sits in the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. It is the federal public health counterpart of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Cleveland (org-npdpsc): CDC funds that centre, which confirms cases by autopsy and laboratory testing, while the office turns the case and death-record data into national incidence estimates. It also sits behind CDC's chronic wasting disease (CWD) messaging, which says no human CWD case has been reported but monitoring continues. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • The office is part of the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology (NCEZID) and is described as the CDC office that tracks, investigates and assists with diagnosis of prion diseases.
  • A 2015 CDC fact sheet states the office monitors human prion diseases in the US and also coordinates work on related neurological illnesses of unknown cause, with epidemiological research, expert consultation and statistical advice.
  • The NPDPSC was founded in 1997 at Case Western Reserve University, is supported by CDC, and passes case data to CDC and state health departments to monitor incidence and investigate possible acquired cases.
  • CDC and NPDPSC staff co-authored the 2020 Neurology incidence paper, which matched national cause-of-death data for 2003 to 2015 against the NPDPSC database and found 5,212 prion disease decedents.
  • That paper gave an age-adjusted average incidence of 1.2 per million per year, with a median age at death of 67 and 5.9 per million at ages 65 and older.
  • Only 10 of the 5,212 decedents were under 30, and only 2 of those were sporadic cases.
  • A CDC slide deck hosted by the CJD Foundation reportedly extends the series to 9,140 decedents for 2003 to 2022 at the same 1.2 per million average; this was seen only in a search summary and is unverified.
  • CDC says no human CWD infection has been reported, that monkey studies suggest a theoretical risk from eating infected meat or brain, and that it has worked with affected states for decades and surveys hunters in long-affected states for early warning.
  • A CDC survey cited on its CWD page found nearly 1 in 5 US residents had hunted deer or elk and over 6 in 10 had eaten venison or elk meat.
  • A 2021 CDC pamphlet from the office addresses protection against prion brain diseases; its text could not be read in this pass.

Timeline

  1. 1997NPDPSC founded at Case Western Reserve University, the laboratory and pathology partner later funded by CDC.
  2. 2015CDC publishes the Prions and Public Health Office fact sheet (22 May).
  3. 2019Maddox and colleagues from CDC and the NPDPSC publish online the 2003 to 2015 incidence analysis (22 November); print issue 14 January 2020.
  4. 2021CDC Stacks records the PPHO pamphlet "Protecting Against Deadly Brain Diseases" (30 August).
  5. 2025CDC slide decks with 2003 to 2022 surveillance figures are uploaded to the CJD Foundation site; venue and date of the talks unconfirmed.
  6. 2026CDC CWD page last dated 21 January, restating no reported human cases and ongoing hunter surveys.

Last checked 1 November 2026

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