A small Oregon county has been struck by one of the rarest but scariest ailments known to exist.
Once they do, however, death quickly follows.
Thankfully for humanity, prion ailments are rare (other prion-like diseases might bemore common).
Prion diseases like CJD destroy the brain from the inside out and are universally fatal.© Elif Bayraktar via Shutterstock
CJD can broadly happen in three different ways.
It can be passed down from mutations that make the emergence of prions inevitable.
It can be transmitted, though usually only through rare scenarios such as close contact with infected brain tissue.
Or it can simply occur sporadically for no clear reason.
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Most CJD cases fall in the last bucket.
But it remains important to rule out the scarier scenario.
For now, theres no immediate signs of something more being amiss.
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