Kuru

Kuru is the prototype human prion disease first reported in publications by Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek and Vincent Zigas in 1957 in the Fore tribes of Papua New Guinea. The word “kuru” means to tremble due to fever or cold. It is a non-inflammatory neurodegenerative disease and is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy transmitted through the act of cannibalism.

The symptoms of kuru progress rapidly with cerebellar and extrapyramidal signs and symptoms, with death occurring within one to two years of onset of symptoms. The disease is now extinct, but its discovery in the 20th century was pivotal for understanding the other prion diseases. Other prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), variant CJD (vCJD), and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease.