Kuru is an incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in humans.
Kuru is believed to be caused by prions and is related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is best known for the epidemic that occurred in Papua New Guinea in the middle of the twentieth century, and earlier.
Although it is considered a transmissible prion disease, there is some evidence that the origin o...
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Kuru is an incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in humans.
Kuru is believed to be caused by prions and is related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is best known for the epidemic that occurred in Papua New Guinea in the middle of the twentieth century, and earlier.
Although it is considered a transmissible prion disease, there is some evidence that the origin of the outbreak was due to consumption of an individual (cannibalism) with sporadic CJD, thus implying a common pathophysiology.
Kuru causes physiological as well as neurological effects that ultimately lead to death. It was endemic among the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea and was confined to the Fore population and those nearby populations with whom they intermarried. It is characterized by truncal ataxia, preceded by headaches, joint pains and shaking of the limbs, with the clinical stage lasting an average of 12 months.
Trembling is present...
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