health

Classic CJD and variant CJD are both very rare diseases. Classic CJD
occurs in about one person in every 1 million per year around the world.
There are about 200 cases reported each year in the United States.
Variant CJD (vCJD) was first reported in the United Kingdom in
1995. Of the about 200 known or suspected cases of vCJD, 164 were
reported in the United Kingdom, twenty-one in France, four in Ireland,
and three in the United States. Of the three cases reported in the United
States, two of the patients had been born in the United Kingdom and lived
there for some years; the third had grown up in Saudi Arabia. As of 2008,
there have been no cases of vCJD that have originated in the United States.
CJD is thought to be equally common in both sexes and all races.

Death of a Master Choreographer

George Balanchine (1904–1983), a noted dancer
and choreographer, left his native Russia for
England in 1924 and emigrated to the United
States in 1933. A dance company that he
founded after his arrival became the New York
City Ballet in 1948. His 1954 staging of The Nutcracker
helped to make the ballet an annual
Christmastime tradition in the United States.
In addition to choreographing ballets for members
of his company, Balanchine continued to
dance himself. In 1978, however, he began to
lose his balance while practicing; then he began
to lose his eyesight and hearing. By 1982 he was
completely incapacitated. It was only after his
death in 1983 that his doctors recognized that he
had CJD, but how or where Balanchine could
have been infected is unknown.
One doctor who treated Balanchine in his last
years implicated treatments Balanchine received
to stay young. The doctor said, “Balanchine was
very much concerned about staying as youthful
as possible…. He once told me that in the past he
had obtained ‘rejuvenation’ injections in Switzerland….
Such injections … oftentimes contain
extracts of animal glands…. If we were certain of
how and where Mr. Balanchine got this rare and
fatal disease, it would help prevent others from
being inoculated with it.”