( CNN ) -- Health officials have confirmed that a patient who underwent neurosurgery at a New Hampshire hospital earlier this year had Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease . The death , and suspicions that the patient may have had the devastating brain ailment , prompted authorities in two states to warn that as many as 13 patients may have been exposed to surgical equipment used during the patient 's surgery , thus to the same disease . The now-deceased patient had undergone neurosurgery at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester . The patient was later suspected of having sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease , a rare , rapidly progressing and always-fatal degenerative brain disease . But by the time this diagnosis was suspected , equipment used in the patient 's surgery had been used several other operations . This raised the possibility that the equipment might have been contaminated -- especially since normal sterilization procedures are not enough to get rid of the disease proteins , known as prions , tied to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- thus potentially exposing the other patients to infection . The patient 's death spurred the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to announce September 4 that eight other patients at the same Manchester hospital were being monitored for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease . Massachusetts health authorities noted the next day that five Cape Cod Hospital patients may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease too because their surgeons this summer later used the same potentially contaminated medical equipment as in the New Hampshire facility . The diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was confirmed by the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center , which reported its conclusion to New Hampshire 's health department and Catholic Medical Center on Friday . `` Though we are not surprised by the test results , we are saddened by the toll this disease takes on families , '' said Dr. Jose Montero , New Hampshire 's public health director . People with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease typically show signs of rapidly progressing dementia , impaired vision and personality changes , among other symptoms , according to the National Institutes of Health . Yet while it can be suspected , the only way the disease can be confirmed is through tests conducted after a person 's death . The status of the five southeast Massachusetts patients who 'd been warned was n't immediately known Friday night . The eight being monitored at Manchester 's Catholic Medical Center have been told about the original patient 's `` autopsy results . '' `` We let them know we will continue to help and support them and to monitor their health going forward , '' said hospital president Dr. Joseph Pepe , `` even though the risk is extremely low that any of these patients was infected . '' Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has a long incubation period before symptoms appear -- sometimes up to 50 years -- according the National Institutes of Health . There 's no test , so it may take many years before these patients would know if they were infected . About 300 people a year in the United States come down with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease , according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The CDC has said that no cases of the disease linked to the use of contaminated medical equipment have been reported in the United States since 1976 . Most medical devices are sterilized by heat , but the World Health Organization recommends the use of a caustic chemical like sodium hydroxide to disinfect equipment that may have come in contact with tissues that could cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease . CNN 's Kevin Conlon and Miriam Falco contributed to this report .
A test showed a New Hampshire patient died of the fatal brain disease . After this patient 's death , authorities said 13 others may have been exposed . Normal surgical sterilization is n't adequate to eradicate disease - causing organisms . Hospital president : ` ` The risk is extremely low that any of these patients was exposed ''