# Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A rare, progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system, characterized by dementia and loss of muscle control. It is a prion disease, apparently transmissible from animals to humans by eating infected tissue, as well as from tissue interchanges among humans (e.g. corneal transplants, blood transfusions).

## Etymology
Named after German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885–1964) and Alfons Maria Jakob (1884–1931).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease