[What do medical students know about cause and epidemiology of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Germany?].

Due to the increase of patients with the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in Great Britain and the first cases of autochthonous BSE cases in Germany, the study tried to investigate the knowledge of medical students about the epidemiology of CJD in Germany and how they assess the influence of different factors on the etiology of CJD. Altogether 63 first year medical students, 96 third year medical students and 50 nurses were included in an anonymous questionnaire survey. They were asked to estimate the annually incidence of CJD in Germany and to assess, by using analogue-scales, the influence of different factors on the risk of contracting CJD. For the medical students the median was 100 and for the nurses the median was 10 annual CJD cases. All participants, and especially the males, emphasised the influence of "risk behaviour" and "environmental factors" on the risk of contracting CJD, the factor "stress/ emotional strain" was seen as most unimportant. No significant differences between female and male participants in the knowledge about the incidence of CJD in Germany were found. It becomes obvious, that epidemiological knowledge about CJD in medical staff is associated with different and gender-specific views on the etiology. Medical education should consider this to avoid endangering medical staff and patients due to overprotection or insufficient precautions.