The channel Aviões e Músicas, which has over 3.5 million followers on YouTube and is recognized for its aviation content in Brazil, is hosted by specialist Lito Souza, a professional with extensive experience as a pilot and aircraft mechanic.
Recently, Lito has been facing various health problems. In July, he announced that he was battling prostate cancer, a condition that also reportedly caused inflammation in his nervous system. However, this Friday (21), the influencer's team informed that he received a diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an extremely rare illness that has no cure or treatment capable of stopping its progression.
Long-term life prospects are considered nil. According to data from the Ministry of Health, 90% of individuals die within one year after receiving the diagnosis. The agency recommends that, currently, therapeutic support be offered and complications controlled.
This condition is classified as a progressive neurodegenerative disease, meaning it destroys nerve cells and deteriorates over time. Symptoms can include memory loss, tremors, and motor difficulties. Although Lito has already lost some of his movements, his wife, Mila Seidl, reported in a video shared on social media that he remains lucid.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is not caused by viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms; its origin lies in prions. These are proteins that, through contact, have the ability to modify other proteins. Prions settle in the brain, gradually altering the region's proteins. This process leads to the interruption of cerebral synapses and the death of neurons, resulting in neurological problems.
There are different manifestations of the disease. One of them is the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is linked to the consumption of meat contaminated by prions responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, popularly known as 'mad cow disease.' The Ministry of Health has not registered any cases of this variant in Brazil since 2005.
The most frequent form is sporadic, characterized by appearing without an identifiable cause. In these cases, a normal body protein acquires the characteristics of a prion, although the exact mechanisms leading to this transformation are not yet fully understood. Globally, the annual incidence of the disease is one case per million people.
Additionally, there are hereditary forms, which are related to genetic mutations. There are three types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: sporadic, which is the most common; familial, caused by a genetically transmissible mutation; and variant, acquired by ingesting beef affected by mad cow disease. As of the publication, Lito's team had not specified which type of disease the influencer had been diagnosed with.