Regular CJD strikes approximately one person per million in any world-wide population. It often effects the elderly and disregards socio-economic levels, race, nationality etc. and has nothing to do with diet. vCJD was a strain of CJD that showed some differences, it attacked younger people for instance, and was first diagnosed in Europe in the late '80's, when scientific evidence began to suggest a possible link between vCJD and BSE in cattle. This became a political issue in Europe that was quickly blown into a major health scare, predicting 10,000 deaths from vCJD by 2000 with another 1000-2000 new cases each year after that. But in fact, none of these dire predictions ever materialized.
To date, 137 deaths worldwide have been attibuted to vCJD since the late 1980's. Six other known cases are in people who are still living. There has never been a confirmed vCJD case in the US except for the woman who contracted the disease in Britain but came back to FL to be with her family when she died.
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