Bill requires autopsies for suspected CJD cases

BOISE – Idaho coroners would be required to ensure that autopsies are performed on suspected victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease under a bill introduced Wednesday in the state House Health and Welfare Committee.

There are several forms of the fatal brain-wasting illness, but none can be definitively diagnosed without an autopsy, health officials say. One form, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, has been linked to consumption of beef tainted by mad cow disease. Others, including classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are not believed to be linked to mad cow.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, follows an investigation last year by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health and Welfare into a suspected cluster of the fatal illness.

Statistically, CJD should strike in Idaho just 1.5 times a year, Henbest said. In 2005, nine suspected cases were reported.

Of those, four people were buried without autopsies. Autopsies on the remaining five showed that three of them suffered from the classic form of the disease, and two did not have CJD.