보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Second iCJD case confirmed

- Investigation is planned for all CJD patients that can be traced to check whether they have received a dura mater graft, etc -

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC; Director Jun, Byung Yool) informed that an additional case of iCJD has been confirmed in a patient who was earlier reported to have been infected with sporadic CJD (sCJD) through the study of the patient’s medical history. This iCJD seems to have occurred after the transplant of the dura mater graft.

The patient in the case is a 48-year-old man who was diagnosed with sCJD in Jul. 2011 at a hospital located in the metropolitan area and his case was reported through the legal communicable disease reporting system. According to this man’s medical record, he got a surgery for intracranial hemorrhage caused by an external injury in May 1988 and received a transplant of the “Lyodura” dura mater.

Generally, it is very rare to carry out a transplant of the dura mater in the surgery for intracranial hemorrhage and the manufacturing history of the dura mater used in the transplantation in this case couldn’t be found.   

KCDC has requested the Korean Neurological Association, the Korean Medical Association, and the Korean Hospital Association, etc to keep detailed records of medical histories related to iCJD including operation histories of the patients suspected of having sCJD.

KCDC also said that it would conduct a tracking investigation to check and confirm the possibility of exposure to the risk of iCJD infections by all the CJD patients that can be traced with medical records at hospitals of all levels including the CJD patients that have been reported through the legal communicable disease reporting system since 2000.