Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease among Physicians, Germany, 1993-2018

We investigated sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) among physicians in Germany by analyzing occupational information of patients with sCJD recorded by the German CJD Surveillance Unit (1993-2005; 1,250 patients, of whom 4 [0.32%] were physicians) and the National Reference Center for Human Spongiform Encephalopathies (2006-2016; 1,491 patients, of whom 13 [0.87%] were physicians). Among the physicians, we did not identify any neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, or pathologists. A cumulative sum test showed an increase in reported physicians over time. Data for 2017-2018 indicated an increased rate of physicians among all notified sCJD cases (5/239 [2.1%]) when we used the total population of Germany as control group. Our data suggest the possibility of an increased risk for sCJD among physicians in Germany. However, we can only speculate about the reasons, and larger multinational studies are needed to replicate the finding and to clarify whether this finding is a general or a country-specific phenomenon.