Effect of SARS-CoV-2 Incidence and Immunisation Rates on Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Incidence.

Hermann P; Böhnke J; Bunck T; Goebel S; Jaeger VK; Karch A; Zerr I

Abstract

BACKGROUND - OBJECTIVES - METHOD - RESULTS - CONCLUSIONS; Recent case studies and media outlets have hypothesised an effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection and immunisation on the development or progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD).; This study aims to identify potential associations of SARS-CoV-2 infections and SARS-CoV-2 immunisation with sCJD incidence, disease duration, and age of onset.; We used data from a prospective sCJD surveillance study in Germany (2016-2022) and publicly available datasets of SARS-CoV-2 cases and vaccination numbers in Germany for the years 2020-2022. Associations of SARS-CoV-2 incidence and immunisation rates with sCJD incidence were assessed by comparing quarterly and annual cumulative sCJD incidences in the periods before (2016-2019) and during the pandemic (2020-2022).; We could not identify any time-related effect of SARS-CoV-2 incidence or immunisation rate on the sCJD incidence. Moreover, we did not find any sCJD incidence alterations before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on a federal or state level. The overall sCJD incidence was within expected ranges in the years 2020-2022. There were no changes in age of onset and clinical disease duration in these years.; We found no evidence supporting a short-term effect of the pandemic on sCJD incidence. However, considering the extended pre-clinical phase of sCJD, continued surveillance is needed to identify potential future incidence alterations.