Brown P et al. 2012, Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, final assessment (Emerg Infect Dis 18(6):901-907, PMID 22607808, doi 10.3201/eid1806.120116)

This is the worldwide closing tally of iatrogenic CJD, written by ten authors from national surveillance groups in France, Japan, the UK, Italy, the US and others, and published open access in Emerging Infectious Diseases in June 2012. It concludes that the iatrogenic era is nearly over, with the main sources having been contaminated human growth hormone and dura mater grafts and only occasional very long incubation cases still appearing. Case counts here are aggregate only. Citation as queued was checked against Europe PMC and Crossref and is correct; the PMCID (PMC3358170) is added here. Read depth: the open-access article page text was read, but tables and figures were available only as captions. Information only.

Key facts

  • Worldwide the paper counts 226 growth hormone cases and 228 dura mater graft cases, the two dominant routes.
  • Growth hormone attack rates by country: France 119 cases among 1,880 recipients (6.3 percent), UK 65 of 1,800 (3.6 percent), US 29 of 7,700 (0.4 percent).
  • Japan accounts for 142 of the 228 dura mater cases, about two thirds, and the US for 4.
  • Incubation periods range from 5 to 42 years overall (mean 17) and 1.3 to 30 years for dura mater (mean 12).
  • A 2018 MMWR update counts 154 dura mater cases in Japan up to 2017, of which 140 had a documented Lyodura graft, and quotes the 2012 global summary as 142 of 228 (62 percent).
  • Bibliographic data: Brown, Brandel, Sato, Nakamura, MacKenzie, Will, Ladogana, Pocchiari, Leschek and Schonberger; vol 18 issue 6 pages 901-907; DOI 10.3201/eid1806.120116; PMID 22607808; CC BY.

Timeline

  1. 1974First reported iatrogenic case, a corneal graft recipient.
  2. 2012Final assessment published in Emerg Infect Dis 18(6).
  3. 2018CDC MMWR update raises the Japan dura mater total to 154 (1975 to 2017).

Last checked 1 November 2026

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