Practical aspects of decontamination of the unconventional transmissible agents that cause sporadic and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other similar human diseases.

Although the unconventional agents that cause transmissible degenerative encephalopathies have not yet been completely characterised, they are known to be relatively resistant to decontamination procedures that are effective with conventional microorganisms. The implications for the safe decontamination and sterilisation of devices and instruments used in human medicine are discussed.