"We're On Our Way!"…Utah Joins 'National CJD Awareness Week' And California Adds CJD To Their Required Reportable List

Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. has sent CJD Aware! a letter of recognition supporting their efforts in promoting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) awareness, and the state of California has added CJD/TSE's to their required reportable conditions list.

"We want to thank Fran Stultz in Governor Huntsman's office for her assistance in obtaining this letter from the Governor, " remarked Christy Brom, founder/director for CJD Aware!, a New Orleans-based, information organization.

"We also thank our out-of-state sponsor and Utah-resident, Mel Steiger. He took time out of his busy schedule to assist us with our request from Governor Huntsman." CJD Aware! was formed in the spring of 2002 after the death of the founder's mother, Sara Brom, from the sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Since its inception, the information organization has grown rapidly and just recently celebrated their five-year anniversary. The National CJD Awareness Week campaign is one of their projects. Their goal is to receive signed CJD proclamations/letters from the Governor's of all 50-states proclaiming National CJD Awareness Week (Nov. 11-17, 2007) in their respective state and they are over half-way to their goal. In addition to the good
news from Utah, as of July of this year, CJD and other TSE's (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) have been added to the required reportable
conditions in the state of California. "The California State Health Department has
been keeping us updated on this important effort, and we thank them, " remarked Lori Brom, CJD Aware! volunteer coordinator. "We know of two other states who are in the
process of revising their regulations, so the United States is very close to having this disease reportable nation-wide," added Ms. Brom.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare and fatal brain disease. It has been referred to as the 'silent killer', 'mystery disease', and 'Alzheimer's in fast-forward'. There is no known cure, all doctors can do is make the patient as comfortable as possible as the disease progresses. Ultimately, the disease can only be confirmed by an autopsy.