Continuing Enhanced National Surveillance for Prion Diseases in the United States

Neuropathologists (AANP), the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center was established to enhance national CJD surveillance and to make possible laboratory investigation of newly emerging prion diseases. This pathology center, currently located at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, provided the services of a cutting edge prion disease laboratory, filling a critical public health gap for monitoring prion diseases in humans. Brain tissues and clinical laboratory information on clinically suspected and diagnosed cases of human prion disease have been evaluated at the NPDPSC for approximately 20 years to confirm diagnoses and determine the type of prion disease, including whether the patients had variant CJD or some other possible emerging prion disease in the United States.