Information
September 2003
The role of Health Canada in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
cases
Health Canada has an important role in protecting the health
and safety of Canadians; however, it is but one component of a
complex system of health protection, which includes, among others,
various levels of government, government agencies, the health care
and medical professions, the academic and health sciences research.
Other components include: development communities, manufacturers
and importers, patient groups, and individual Canadians.
Disease surveillance
As a public health organization, Health Canada offers national
coordination of disease surveillance, and services of national
laboratory reference and expertise in communicable disease.
CJD is a rare disease that affects the central nervous system.
There are two types of CJD, classical and a new form, called variant
CJD. Each year, Health Canada routinely investigates about 80 to100
reports of suspected classical CJD and only a few reports of suspected
variant CJD. On average, about 30 cases of classical CJD are confirmed
each year in Canada. Many reports of initially suspected classical
CJD are later diagnosed as Alzheimer's Disease or other neurological
disorders.
In 1998, Health Canada launched a national CJD surveillance system
to monitor for the disease in Canada. This comprehensive surveillance
system is one of the finest in the world.
The system relies on Canadian specialist physicians such as neurologists,
geriatricians, neurosurgeons, neuropathologists, infection control
practitioners and infectious disease physicians, who participate
in a national network. These physicians report all suspected cases
of classical or variant CJD to a toll-free line, where a standard
questionnaire is used to collect information.
If the suspected case meets certain criteria, physicians are asked
to seek consent from the patient and family to enroll the case.
Then, Health Canada officials conduct interviews and review medical
records of the patient. They coordinate and conduct special laboratory
testing which assists in the diagnosis. Health Canada also provides
state-of-the-art neuropathology diagnostic services for examination
of the brain tissue, generally after death of the patient. This
is the only way of confirming the diagnosis of either classical
or variant CJD.
For more information on the CJD surveillance system, please see Health
Canada Web site.
Infection Control Guidelines
Health Canada worked with infectious disease and infection control
porfessionals in Canada to produce the Infection Control Guidelines
for Classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Canada, November
2002. The Guidelines were produced for health-care facilities on
the best way to prevent and control hospital-acquired infections.
The Guidelines provide a framework within which institutions and
agencies may develop their own policies and procedures to address
their needs. The Health Canada infection control guidelines provide
evidence-based recommendations. Where scientific evidence is lacking,
the consensus of experts is used to formulate a recommendation.
The Guidelines are available on the Health
Canada web site.
Provinces and Territories
In Canada, provinces have authority over public health, practice
of medicine, and hospitals. Each province has delegated regulatory
oversight over the practice of medicine to provincial colleges
of physicians and surgeons.
Whether to quarrantine or decontaminate surgical instruments and
notify patients of a potential exposure to transmissible diseases
falls within the practice of medicine and is the responsibility
of the relevant provincial health authorities.
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