Prion diseases with a focus on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a summary of the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the Czech Republic over the last 17 years, 2000-2017.

BACKGROUND: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a prion disease. It is a rare, rapidly progressing fatal disorder of the central nervous system, which occurs in four forms: sporadic (sCJD), genetic/familial (gCJD), iatrogenic (iCJD), and variant (vCJD). METHODS: CJD research in the Czech Republic (CR) is conducted by the National Reference Laboratory for Human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, established in 2001 at the Department of Pathology, Thomayer Hospital, Prague. In 2003, this NRL was included in the European network of laboratories monitoring prion diseases. The purpose of the article is to analyse data reported to the EPIDAT system. RESULTS: From June 2000 to June 2017, 207 deaths in persons diagnosed with CJN and four suspected deaths due to gCJD were reported to the EPIDAT system (national program of reporting, recording, and analysis of data on transmissible diseases in the CR). CONCLUSION: Reporting CJD cases to the EPIDAT is helpful in meeting the important goals, i.e. monitoring the incidence and trends of the disease. The incidence of gCJD in particular requires improved diagnosis based on a detailed personal and family history, and thorough epidemiological investigation is crucial to detect possible iatrogenic diseases.

An updated approach to viral hepatitis E.

Viral hepatitis E (VHE) is considered to be the most common acute viral hepatitis worldwide. Since the 1980s, VHE has been reported in developing countries. Although VHE is not a reportable disease in many developed countries, it is evidently on the rise even in these countries [1].In Europe, VHE is no longer an imported disease and efforts have been made to map VHE cases in both humans and animals to be able to update the recommendations for VHE prevention, risk assessment for blood product and organ transplants recipients, prevention strategies for severe and chronic VHE, and laboratory test algorithms.

[The first case of imported infection of Chikungunya virus in the Czech Republic]. / První prukaz importované infekce virem Chikungunya v Ceské republice.

The authors describe the first confirmed case of tropical fever caused by Chikungunya virus imported into the Czech Republic. As the virus belonging to the Alphavirus genus of the Togaviridae family is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes it is classified as an arbovirus. A 43-year-old woman became ill following her arrival from the island of Mauritius where she had stayed during an epidemic. The patient presenting with typical symptoms of the disease recovered completely. Chikungunya virus as the etiological agent was confirmed serologically by the complement fixation reaction in the Czech National Reference Laboratory for Arboviruses.