New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a novel human spongiform encephalopathy with a consistent clinico-pathological phenotype. Epidemiological evidence indicates that this disease is occurring almost exclusively in the UK, where there has been an epidemic of spongiform encephalopathy in the cattle population. Current evidence strongly supports the hypothesis that there is a causal link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.