Prion diseases are very rare, and no treatment is available for most of them.

However, some general characteristics of prion diseases are listed below.

In some cases, the etiology of prion diseases is known.

Prion diseases have been found in 85 species, passing easily between some animals and not others.

But in animals and people with prion diseases, one protein could not be broken down.

There is currently no treatment for prion diseases, which are usually fatal to the host.

Prion diseases cause the slow degeneration of the nervous system.

Prion diseases can occur in a variety of ways.

Occasionally, genetic mutations lead to prion diseases that run in families.

Prion diseases are unique because of the number of ways they can occur.

Only a few known prion diseases afflict humans, and all are fatal.

CWD is the least understood of all the prion diseases.

Yet these advances have also shown how difficult it is to control these so-called prion diseases.

Almost all of the known prion diseases are neurologic diseases.

The critics, who say that the so-called prion diseases are actually caused by viruses, have been unable to find a virus.

It has been known for years that people with a certain genetic marker die soonest of prion diseases.

The clinical presentation of prion diseases will vary from patient to patient.

This is attributed to the long incubation period for prion diseases, which are typically measured in years or decades.

There are two common signs which are seen in typical prion diseases:

Few types of prion diseases are known.

While prion diseases are frightening, they say, the odds of coming into contact with them are extremely low for most Americans.

The presence of such a protein is the diagnostic hallmark of prion diseases, she said.

To identify cases of inherited prion diseases in Britain and to assess their phenotypic features.

GSS is the slowest to progress among human prion diseases.

Brain tissue had been kept in only eight of the cases, and only five of those were found to have prion diseases.