Lito Sousa, a well-known businessman and figure in Brazil’s culinary world, received devastating news in late August: he had been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an extremely rare and rapidly progressing neurodegenerative condition.
That same day, while he was still lucid, he recorded a video in which he spoke about the uncertainty of not knowing whether he had weeks or months left. On October 1, 2026, his family confirmed his death at age 59. 💔
The disease is caused by prions, abnormal proteins that can cause other proteins in the brain to also adopt an abnormal structure, leading to progressive neurological deterioration.
It is neither a virus nor a bacterium, and prions contain no DNA or RNA. Around 85% of cases are sporadic, and the disease affects approximately 1 or 2 people per million each year.