Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, rapid and fatal form of dementia caused by infectious agents called prions.

Prions are proteins that occur naturally in the brain and are normally harmless. When they are misshapen, however, they can cause devastating illness, attacking the brain, killing cells, and creating gaps in tissue.

There are two types of CJD: classical and variant.

Classical CJD (also called sporadic CJD) occurs at random. Variant CJD (vCJD) is a disease linked to eating beef products from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad Cow" disease.

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